Ignite to the Call
by CannibalisticApple
Summary: Last night, they went to bed in their dorms. This morning, they woke up in either A) an abandoned building, B) unfamiliar apartments, C) a plush bedroom... or D) the League of Villains' base, because of COURSE Izuku still manages to draw the shortest straw even when others are screwed over too. Unfortunately, UA never covered what to do if you wake up in another dimension.
1. Chapter 1: Rise and Shine

_It's said the smallest decision can set off a chain reaction that changes the world. There are infinite universes out there, each defined by one small, single change from the rest. So that raises the question:_

_What sort of change created a world like this?_

* * *

"_It's fine now. Why? Because I am here._"

_ Izuku sniffled as he stared at the computer screen, the boisterous laugh which had once left him bouncing with endless excitement now making his chest heavy with despair. His vision blurred with tears as he hugged his knees to his chest, the Hero's form growing even blurrier against the bright flames surrounding him in the video. In the background he distantly registered his mother standing in the doorway of the darkened computer room, speaking in low tones._

_ "...like this since... keeps watching... two days... Quirkless..." _

_ The last word made Izuku wince, sucking in a shuddery breath drowned out by the crackling roar of fire in the video. More tears bubbled up in his eyes, obscuring his vision almost entirely, and as the video clip neared the end he heard his mother walk over._

_ "Izuku, I need to go run some errands," she announced, forcing a sad smile on her face. "Ayane-chan is going to watch you so be good for her while I'm gone, okay?" Izuku sniffled but nodded, not looking back at her. Unseen by him her smile faded, replaced by a look of near despair and hollowness as she left. Izuku remained still as he listened to her footsteps distantly retreat and the front door close, just watching the clip in silence. As it reached the end more footsteps approached him, softer and lighter than his mother's._

_ "I think that's enough of that for now," a new voice commented, and a hand reached to grab the mouse and closed out of the window. Blinking back his still-unshed tears, Izuku craned his head back to see a familiar teenage girl leaning over him to his right, her left eye covered by a white eye patch. She turned to look at him with her good eye and smiled, soft and gentle. "Watching videos in the dark is bad for your eyes, Izu-chan."_

_ The young toddler just sniffled, rubbing at his eyes as he looked away from the screen. "Ayane-nee, mom told you, right?" he asked quietly, frowning heavily. "A-about the d-d-doctor..." He trailed off, unable to finish, and just looked down at his lap in heavy shame. Already he felt his eyes begin to water again, his face scrunching up in agony._

_ "She did," the teenager confirmed gently, pausing before she added, "That's a lot to take in, huh?"_

_ Izuku openly sobbed at that, his head tilting back with a low whine. The older girl startled before quickly scooping him up into a panicked hug. "H-hey, don't cry! I-it's not that bad!"_

_ "B-b-but I'm _Quirkless_!" he wailed, and actually saying it out loud just made him cry harder. Ayane made a noise of distress, clearly not sure how to handle a crying toddler. Thinking fast, she put him back down on the chair and began wiping away his tears._

_ "Is being Quirkless really that bad?" she asked, and his crying faded long enough to stare at her in a mix of shock and horror._

_ "H-h-how is it _not_ bad?" he sobbed. "I-I-I c-can't, I c-c-can't—" _I can't be a Hero,_ he thought dismally, but he couldn't say it out loud. His babysitter frowned, her hand raising to her mouth as she glanced to the side with a thoughtful gleam in her eye._

_ "...Izuku, do you want to know a secret?" she asked, turning her gaze back to him. Sniffling one last time, he wiped at his eyes and bobbed his head, and she gestured for him to lean forward. Blinking, he did as told, and she moved her head close to whisper in his ear. "_I wish I was Quirkless._"_

_ He reeled back at that, his eyes wide and jaw dropping with disbelief. "Wha—_why_!? Why would anyone want to be Quirkless!? Especially you! Your Quirk is so cool and pretty!"_

_ "It's got its nice parts," she agreed, absently reaching for the silver wing-shaped hairclip pinning her bangs to the side. "But it's got downsides, too. All Quirks do, some way worse than others. In fact..." She trailed off, looking hesitant, before shaking her head. "No, actually, I think you're a bit young to hear that one. But I know some people who would give _anything_ to be Quirkless. And even then, some Quirks don't really do anything that special or flashy, so they might as well be Quirkless._

_ "The point is," she continued, meeting his gaze squarely, "Being Quirkless isn't that bad."_

_ Ayane smiled at him then, warm and kind and full of fondness, and as he stared at her Izuku saw no pity in her eye, no guilt or sadness like his mom. Only gentleness and love._

_ Izuku felt himself start to tear up once again and burst into sobs once more, but this time for a different reason._

* * *

_I wonder... How would things be if we never met?_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_.::Rise and Shine::._

The first sign something was wrong was when Todoroki Shouto opened his eyes just enough to glimpse an unfamiliar cracked gray ceiling instead of his dorm room.

That alone had been enough to jolt him into instant alertness, any remaining traces of sleep vanishing as his eyes snapped wide open. He remained still, doing his best to catalogue his surroundings while his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. The room he was in looked empty and long-abandoned, void of furniture save for a tattered couch just in his peripheral vision and the paint on the walls chipping and cracked. Shouto himself lay in a corner, wrapped in a thick blanket and curled up on a slightly lumpy pile he suspected to be more blankets.

That was as much as he could observe without actually turning his head. He experimentally twitched his fingers and toes, finding everything responded fine and he didn't seem to be restrained in any way. After a long moment he rolled his head slightly to the side, getting a better look at the room. It confirmed there to be no furniture besides the couch, though he now noted a pair of boots next to him that seemed to be his size and he could see an open doorway which served as the only source of light in the room.

_Dawn,_ he thought dimly as he studied the pale blue glow in the hallway outside, the soft color too natural to be from a light bulb. As he considered the implications something moved on the couch and he startled, snapping his gaze towards it. Now that he was looking at it directly he realized that someone was laying there, swathed in a ratty blanket similar in color to the couch's material, but he could clearly see a head of inky black hair facing away from him.

The person shifted a bit, rolling over slightly and a hand falling over the edge. Shouto felt his heart stutter to a halt as he recognized the wrinkled, purple skin marring the uncovered wrist, metal staples almost serving as a bridge to the unscarred hand. _Dabi._

As if sensing his thoughts the figure rolled their head over, revealing the man's hideous patchwork face. The sagging purple bag beneath his right eye wrinkled further as the eyelid parted, a single turquoise orb glinting in the darkness. Shouto's blood chilled as it quickly aimed right at him to meet his own gaze, the staples lining the makeshift Glasgow grin stretching from his lips tugging tighter as the corners of his mouth twitched upwards in a small smirk.

"Mornin', Shouto-chan," the Villain mumbled sleepily.

At the sound of his voice a switch flipped in Shouto's brain and his shocked fugue vanished. He shot upright immediately, throwing the blanket aside and rolling off his makeshift bed to jump to his feet, his right foot slamming on the ground and sending a wall of ice rippling towards the couch.

A startled yelp sounded as the ice quickly encased the Villain, leaving only his head exposed, but Shouto paid him no mind as he _bolted_ from the room. He snatched up the boots almost as an afterthought as he ran, ignoring the man's screams and shouts as he fled down the hallways.

Shouto had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on, but Dabi's presence made it quite obvious he'd been captured by the League of Villains. The Villain's yells echoed clearly through the dilapidated halls, and Shouto knew he likely only had _seconds_ to get away before someone would come to investigate. Thinking fast, he ducked into one of the open doorways with telltale dim light filtering out and found it thankfully empty of people.

His attention immediately honed in on a dusty-looking window on the far wall and without hesitation he surged towards it, slamming his right palm against the glass. Ice frosted the window instantly, the brittle glass cracking under the cold and the icy coating minimizing damage to himself as he barreled through it. As he found himself in a free fall he had only two seconds to regret not looking out beforehand before he landed on the ground.

His training took over and he instinctively rolled upon landing, springing to his feet and running once more. He glanced around desperately as he ran from the building, trying to identify his surroundings. He appeared to be in some sort of abandoned factory district, the nearest buildings (still a bit too far for his liking) worn and shabby looking even from a distance. The sky still looked largely dark, but he could glimpse a pale yellow tint between some of the buildings telling him sunrise had just begun.

While looking around he spotted shimmering light reflecting off water through a hole in the fence enclosing the property, and he quickly changed course towards it. As he moved he glanced down to take stock of his state, and was surprised to realize he now wore jeans and a ratty-looking sweatshirt over a plain t-shirt. He had socks on but running barefoot wouldn't do much good. A glance at the boots revealed them to have zippers on the sides, and after a second's hesitation he began fumbling to tug them on, slowing down but not stopping..

It added a few heart-pounding seconds to his escape, making him wary of a Villain appearing to apprehend him. To his relief though no one appeared, and he tugged the zippers up—confirming the boots fit—and sprinted the remaining distance to the river. Three long strides later Shouto dove into the water, triggering the heat in the left half of his body to combat the icy chill as he swam with the current as fast as he could.

* * *

Like every morning, Uraraka Ochaco awoke to the alarm on her phone ringing.

Unlike every morning, when she reached for her phone on her headboard her gloved hand just swatted empty air.

That was enough to knock some of her grogginess away, moaning drowsily as her hand continued to pathetically paw at the air above her head and consistently fail to hit her phone or even the headboard. As she continued her sleepy fumbling some more of her grogginess faded, just enough to recognize that the alarm didn't come from above her head, but _next_ to it. With that she dutifully repositioned her hand and her gloved fingers finally made contact with wood, patting around until she felt the familiar shape of her phone and _finally_ hitting the volume button on the side to trigger the snooze.

Satisfied at the resulting silence, she exhaled and snuggled against her pillow to let herself wake up naturally.

Five seconds later she abruptly remembered she didn't _have_ a bedside table and bolted upright in bed with a startled blink.

Her first thought upon looking at the room: it wasn't her dorm _or_ her room at home, but it definitely belonged to her. She had always kept her room on the plainer side, but she recognized a few things like her beloved cactus plant on the desk and a framed family photo. Confused but not necessarily panicked (yet), she got out of bed hesitantly and started walking around the room, absently tugging her sleeping gloves off as she looked at everything.

_Yep, this is definitely my stuff,_ she decided when she noticed a giant poster from an old anime about constellation-themed magical girls. She'd gotten it for her fifth birthday, but had opted against bringing to UA since it felt a bit too childish for a Hero in training. Confusion growing, she returned to her bed and snatched up her phone, and paused when she unlocked it. The lock screen photo was different; instead of her, Tsuyu and Ashido in their cheerleader costumes from the Sports Festival, it now showed her wearing a t-shirt with the logo for her dad's construction company.

"Is that a construction site?" she asked aloud, staring at the photo. The more she looked at it, the more certain she was that yes, it _was_ a construction site. She could recognize the equipment in the background, and she held a hard hat under her arm as she grinned at the camera. The same hard hat which she now realized sat on her desk, right next to the photo of her middle school graduation.

As she pondered over the implications of this she heard a knock on the door. "Ochaco, honey," her mother's familiar voice called gently, making her perk up instantly. "Are you awake?" For half a second Ochaco considered the possibility she had been captured by a Villain and taken to some place, and that the person outside her door _wasn't_ her mom. Then she looked at the poster for the Starlight Squad, and immediately dismissed the possibility. No way a Villain would bother learning about _that_.

"Yeah, I'm awake," she confirmed. The door opened and her mother poked her head in. She looked a bit different from how Ochaco remembered, but not in an imposter sort of way. Her hair looked a bit shorter, the worry lines on her face a little deeper but her overall expression a little less tired as she smiled.

"You're such an early bird, Ochaco-chan," she teased lightly. "Getting up early even on your day off."

Her phrasing made Ochaco blink. "Day off?" she repeated without thinking. Her mother's smile faded slightly at that, looking briefly surprised.

"Did you forget? Yesterday another boy almost got kidnapped on the way home from school, so your father wants you to stay at home today. He already headed out to the construction site so he could get an early start."

"O...oh," Ochaco said quietly, trying to process her mother's words. A boy almost got kidnapped? Her dad? _What?_ As she struggled to figure out what was going on her mother sighed and shook her head sadly.

"I swear, sometimes it feels like this world's going to hell in a hand basket," she murmured. "It's good for business, I'll admit that much, but I wish things were just a bit safer, or you could at least have gone to high school..." Pausing, she then blinked and quickly smiled. "Oh, sorry sweetie, I didn't mean to talk like that in front of you. Anyways, breakfast is ready whenever you're ready to eat. You can even come down in your pajamas if you want," she added with a teasing smile, "It's been a while since we've had a day with just us girls here."

With that she withdrew and closed the door, leaving Ochaco to stand in ever-growing confusion. Slowly her gaze trailed to her phone, her index finger clicking down the power button to rouse it from sleep and reveal the photo of her again. Feeling a sense of unease growing in her stomach, she quietly unlocked her phone and found a group chat with several unread messages, recognizing the names as some of her dad's foremen.

_ 'We'll miss you this week Ochacha! Just stay safe at home!' 'Don't worry about us, we'll be fine!' 'We're not totally dependent on you yet Ojouco-chan! We can last a week!'_

_Do... Do I work for dad's company?_ Ochaco wondered, her unease growing. Frowning, she quietly exited the chat app and pulled up her internet browser, going straight to Google.

* * *

Similar to Ochaco, Ashido Mina immediately noted her room fit her tastes, but didn't really match her dorm. She'd bought a _lot_ of stuff just for moving to the dorms at UA, knowing she'd likely have her friends over more often, but this room had most of her _old_ stuff.

Of course it was still very pink. Mina embraced her overly pink appearance from a young age and her bedroom reflected this. She especially loved the popping contrast of hot pink and black in particular, it felt so _mature_ and _cool_. Her dresser, with the hot pink drawers and fuzzy top? She basically forced her parents to buy it for her when she was seven. The pink leopard print lampshade? She got that in middle school on sale at a fashion shop.

Surveying the room, Mina nodded and silently concluded, _Yep, this is my room._ She might not recognize the actual room, or a lot of the stuff in there, but this was definitely her stuff. Ergo, the room must belong to her.

With that settled, Mina began exploring the new space, opening a sliding door to reveal a closet. She found several sailor uniforms hanging up, with a black top and white fuku with two columns of red buttons down the middle, matched with a pleated red skirt with black trim on the bottom and a single thin white line just above the trim. Huh. Neat! But why was it here?

Frowning, she left it alone for the moment and went to her dresser, picking up the framed photos on it. They weren't all that familiar, but she _did_ notice one had her in that very cool uniform, along with one of her middle school friends in the same uniform. They stood in front of a sign for a school called... Sakakura High School? Grabbing a cell phone which had been plugged into a charger sitting next to the frame, Mina unlocked it easily and quickly searched the school's name.

A beat passed as she looked at the top result.

"Haaah!?" she blurted, nearly dropping the phone. "It's in _Kamino!?_" She ran to the window and threw the pink leopard-pattern curtains open, revealing the skyline. Mina stared in shock at the city spread before her, taking a long moment to just absorb it.

...Mina didn't actually remember any landmarks in Kamino, or even Yokohama in general, so she wasn't sure if this was _actually_ Kamino. But she could at _least_ tell this place wasn't Musutafu or Tokyo.

As she looked at the city in confusion she noticed a distant explosion on a high-rise building, making her perk up. _Villain attack?_ When another explosion occurred, she nodded to herself in confirmation. Yep, definitely a Villain attack. As a Hero in training with a provisional license, maybe she should go help. Or not. Thinking it over, she realized that, no, she probably shouldn't go help seeing as she didn't even know what was going on.

Decision made, she closed the curtains and turned back to survey her new bedroom, trying to figure out what to do. Mina knew she wasn't necessarily the _best_ student when it came to stuff like academics or strategy, but she was pretty sure her classes at UA had never covered a situation quite like _this_.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, it took about two minutes for Kaminari Denki to wake up enough to enter full-blown panic mode.

In his defense, he'd never been a morning person. He considered it a victory that he no longer hit the snooze button on his alarm repeatedly and _actually_ got out of bed the first time it went off. He usually spent his mornings shuffling around his room blindly, his eyes refusing to open for the first five minutes and leaving him dependent on his familiarity with the space to get around.

That had been what made him realize something was wrong. He kept bumping into stuff where stuff shouldn't be. Really, looking back his first clue should have been when he rolled out of bed on the right side only to bump into a wall. His bed in the dorms was against the _left_ wall, not the right. But in his still-groggy state he'd just gotten out on the other side and proceeded to shuffle around like a zombie and bump into everything, far more than usual.

After nearly tripping over a shirt on the floor and then almost stubbing his toe on a waste basket, he finally managed to peel open his eyes enough to recognize he _didn't recognize anything_.

He yelped when he finally noticed, rubbing at his eyes to get rid of the lingering sleep and just swiveling his head around wildly. "What the hell, this isn't my room!" It looked nothing like his room at UA. If anything, it looked like a bunch of stuff that had been randomly grabbed just on the basis of how "cool" it was. Which, okay, he had to admit a lot of it _was_ pretty cool. Like the collection of hats hanging on the wall. Or that lamp shaped like a lightning bolt. Or that framed autographed shirt from Deep Dope on the wall...

And the framed photo of him _from_ that concert next to it...

Denki spent about three seconds staring at the photo, his face blank. That was definitely him in the photo, there was no denying that. He was sitting on some guy's shoulders pumping his fists into the air, electricity visibly crackling around his hands.

Okay, fine. So the room had a photo of him, and also a lot of stuff he thought looked really cool. But the arrangement was different than what he'd do! And he still doesn't recognize anything here! Though seriously, where did that lightning bolt lamp come from? That thing was awesome—_no, bad Denki!_ Focus! Something was seriously wrong here! This might fit his tastes, but this wasn't his room!

But the biggest red flag?

_There's a school uniform on top of the chair and it's DEFINITELY not UA's._

He couldn't even recognize what school it belonged to. It was a totally different style from UA's, a classic white button-up shirt with teal trim on the pockets and sleeves, along with a pair of dark blue plaid pants. He held the shirt up with a grimace, silently questioning _what the hell what the hell wHAT THE HELL—_

"No!" he scolded himself, slapping his cheeks with a frown. "Calm down Denki! Just... just calm down and think!" Right. Okay, to recap: he didn't know where he was, but he had a lot of his stuff here, but also some stuff he didn't recognize, like that lamp and those photos of him with some strange guy and also a cell phone—

_A cell phone!_ He snatched it up immediately, jabbing the power button desperately. The screen lit up to reveal a photo of himself sleeping in that weird uniform with his face covered in hand-drawn lightning bolts, which, what the hell. He _definitely_ didn't remember that. He pushed past the rising panic and entered his password, and to his _immense_ relief it worked.

Hands trembling, he opened his text messages and promptly felt his stomach sink as a stream of unfamiliar names greeted him. Seriously, who were these people? The previews of the most recent texts sounded friendly and familiar—'_see you later_', '_lol nerd_', '_ill tell him congrats for you_', '_Don't forget to brush your teeth this time!_'—but the names rang absolutely no bells.

As Denki scrolled through the list, desperately searching for _someone_ familiar, he suddenly froze as a single name popped out at him. An angelic choir seemed to sound somewhere, a ray of golden light filtering from above to illuminate the lone name. With a deep breath he jabbed the text message and opened the contact information, hitting the call button and raising his phone to his ear with a pathetic whimper.

* * *

Around the same time, Jirou Kyouka stared at an unfamiliar apartment with pursed lips. While the _space_ wasn't familiar, she recognized a lot of her furniture and possessions, a rug with a gray and black checkerboard pattern lining the floor and some of her instruments scattered about. Some things were missing, like her drum set and a few guitars, but she still had some of her amps and her favorite bass guitar. If anything, it actually felt a bit less cluttered than her dorm since this room was larger.

More notably though, her walls had been decorated with framed vintage album covers from her house, which... didn't make sense. Her dad had spent _years_ collecting those, he'd freak out if she so much as _touched_ them let alone take them into her room. Seriously, some of them were over _two hundred years old_, passed down from generation to generation on her father's side since before Quirks even emerged. Those were probably more valuable than their house.

But even more disconcerting than _that_ was the school uniform laid out on her desk chair. White button-up top with a powder blue vest and a blue plaid skirt—_definitely_ not UA's. Kyouka didn't know what school it belonged to; the vest had an emblem for it embroidered above the heart, but she didn't recognize it at all. So at the very least, the school wasn't in the Musutafu area.

As she studied it contemplatively she heard a cell phone ring and jumped, her head swiveling to see one sitting on the desk. The case didn't look familiar and the ring tone was a different Deep Dope song from the one she set. She walked over cautiously to peek at the screen, but when she saw a familiar name displayed she lost all hesitation and snatched it off the table to answer.

She didn't even lift it to her ear before she heard a _wail_ from the other end that made her wince. "JIIRROOUUU!" Kaminari's ever-recognizable voice whined. "HELP ME! I'M IN AN UNFAMILIAR PLACE AND THERE'S A BUNCH OF MY STUFF HERE AND THIS UNIFORM I DON'T KNOW AND I HAVE TEXTS FROM ALL THESE PEOPLE I'VE NEVER HEARD OF—"

Kyouka winced as he continued to whine, holding the phone a little farther away from her head. Gritting her teeth, she pulled it close long enough to snap an irritated, "_Calm down and shut up!_" Almost immediately Kaminari went mercifully silent, though she could still hear him whimpering. _Good enough._ She took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose as she moved the phone closer.

"Look, Kaminari. I'm not sure what's going on either," she said levelly. "But I'm in a different room with a bunch of my stuff."

"Wait, so you're not at UA either!?"

"I wish," she grumbled. It would be so much easier if one of them could get Aizawa, or even just one of their classmates like Yaomomo or Iida. For now though it looked like they were on their own. She took a breath as she tried to organize her thoughts. "Okay, first thing we should do is probably to assess our surroundings and get as much information as possible."

"Y-yeah, that sounds good," Kaminari agreed shakily, and Kyouka nodded as she surveyed her desk once more.

"Okay. Right now I'm looking at my desk and I have a different uniform too, and..."

She trailed off as she noticed an album propped on the desk like a photograph, her dad's name printed in the lower corner of a picture of her parents she recognized from their college days. They sat on a beach close to sunset, and her dad leaned forward to gaze at her mother with a transfixed smile. She sat cross-legged on the towel wearing a flowy shirt and jean shorts, her hair longer and hanging loose over her arm as she strummed a guitar.

They looked happy and content, totally at peace with themselves, but she barely paid them any mind. Her eyes were pointedly fixed on the draping black ribbons printed on the upper corners of the image, and the title "_For Mika_" in the lower left corner above her dad's name.

She faintly heard Kaminari calling her name just before the phone slipped from her fingers.

* * *

When Izuku woke up in an unfamiliar room, he quashed the initial instinct to freak out to focus on investigating instead.

The room looked unfamiliar, but not overly threatening. The bed he'd woken up in had a dark green cover, and there was a desk with a currently closed laptop and a small flat-screen TV. There were bookshelves, too, full of neatly-organized notebooks and books, and a dresser with a mirror with photos taped to it and what looked to be an envelope sitting on top of it? The bedside table had a dimly glowing orb-shaped lamp that gradually grew brighter with each passing minute, which provided the _only_ light in the room since it lacked any windows.

The lack of windows admittedly unnerved Izuku a little bit, but at least the walls weren't bare. If anything, he found it comforting to find himself surrounded by posters for various Heroes. Some of them even felt like ones he had, like that limited-edition "Put Your Hands Up! Radio" poster from when Present Mic first started his radio show, and a reprint of the sadly defunct international rescue team Storm Chasers his neighbor gave him.

Other posters he didn't recognize at all though. In fact, some of the _Heroes_ displayed were unfamiliar, which was beyond weird. Izuku knew _all_ the Heroes big enough to have their own merchandise, and plenty more who didn't. So to see some he didn't recognize _at all_ made him feel a bit uneasy.

More noticeably though, none of them displayed All Might.

The distinct absence of his mentor was almost as blaring as if the man had actually been in the room himself. His own room had been plastered with All Might memorabilia—both at home and after he moved into the dorms—so the distinct _lack_ of his face among all these other Heroes made it feel off. Right now, Izuku would _really_ feel better if he could see even a drawing of his mentor's bright, dazzling grin.

He got out of bed slowly, noticing he wore unfamiliar pajamas as he did so. They felt really nice and soft though, a classic button-down shirt and pants combo made with mint-green flannel that _seriously, felt so _soft. When he looked down he could pick out loose threads and slightly rough-looking patches in the fabric. Izuku bit his lip, wondering if he should be worried about wearing pajamas that someone _clearly_ wore on a regular basis, and decided to check the dresser for something else to wear.

Pulling open the drawers... didn't really alleviate his unease. He found all sorts of shirts and pants that showed similar signs of regular usage, all of them looking to be his size. That just made him feel even more unsettled. Obviously he recognized none of it, but the clothing fit his tastes. Lots of basic t-shirts and shorts, though surprisingly few Hero-themed pieces of clothing.

As he looked through the drawers with a frown, he briefly glanced up at his reflection only to freeze. _Something's not right_. Izuku abandoned his search to stare at the mirror more closely, trying to pin what it was.

As far as he could tell, he looked normal. His hair was still dark and curly, if a bit messier due to just waking up. His eyes were the same vibrant green, his skin a healthy complexion. Actually, now that he thought about it he might look a little paler than he remembered, but not unnaturally so. Just the sort of pale from when he didn't get as much sunlight, like in winter. Also, he thought he _might_ have a few less freckles than he remembered...?

He frowned, that sense of unease growing a little more. Overall he saw nothing blatantly wrong with his reflection and those tiny details could be his imagination, but he still couldn't shake the sense something was off. Staring so closely at his reflection was starting to feel kind of weird though, like he wasn't looking at himself, and he quickly lowered his gaze only to pause as his eyes lit upon the envelope.

There, in his own handwriting, was the simple phrase: "_Izuku - Read In Case of Emergency_".

"What the...?" he mumbled, frowning as he picked up the envelope. No matter how he looked at it, that was _definitely_ his handwriting. The only alternative explanation he could think of was someone using a quirk to copy it, a thought which instantly set him on edge. Had he been kidnapped? Was this part of a trap?

Before he could think further a knock sounded on the door, making him jolt and almost yelp in surprise before forcibly smothering the sound. If he'd been kidnapped, it would be best to hide his consciousness as long as possible, even if it might just be a few seconds. "Izu?" a raspy voice called, and Izuku froze, his blood chilling and his eyes growing wide in horror.

He recognized that voice, that dry edge forever tinged with a quiet rasp, he could recognize it anywhere even if he'd only heard it a few times before. It was impossible to forget it. Not after he'd heard it breathe into his ear as a hand wrapped four fingers around his throat with the fifth hovering just above his skin. Not when he could still hear the low threats to Asui and taunts to Aizawa-sensei amidst the battle that _still_ haunted his nightmares.

_Shigaraki Tomura,_ Izuku thought in mute horror, his hands trembling as his grip tightened on the envelope. Just _hearing_ him brought back all sorts of horrific memories, of all the trials and pain he and his friends had suffered because of this man and his twisted followers. If Shigaraki was there, that could only mean he must have been captured by the League of Villains, and was most likely in their headquarters.

Fighting Shigaraki head on would be tantamount to suicide. Izuku still lacked a good deal of control over One for All, and Shigaraki's mere _touch_ could disintegrate people. It would only take one five-fingered slap to spell death for him, which he _might_ be able to avoid—but even if he got away, then what? As far as he could tell he didn't have any of the gear Hatsume made him to help mitigate the blowback to himself, and he was still likely in the heart of the League of Villains' headquarters, surrounded by _more_ Villains.

"Izu, are you awake?" the Villain called, breaking his line of thought. His voice was a bit softer than expected, lacking the taunting edge or quiet undertones of menace Izuku usually associated with it. He held his breath, not daring to make a sound in fear of what the Villain might do. After a moment Shigaraki called out again, a bit softer. "If you still feel bad, I guess I'll tell Kurogiri to put breakfast away for now. Just come out whenever, I guess."

_Breakfast?_ Izuku thought almost hysterically. He'd been captured by the League of Villains, and Shigaraki was talking about _breakfast_? The sheer normalcy of the comment made him almost want to laugh. He expected the man to burst through the door and begin taunting him with that sleazy smile of his, rake four fingers through Izuku's hair while whispering menacing threats under his breath. Not talk through the door to let him know about _breakfast_.

Caught up in his frantic train of thoughts, Izuku almost didn't register the soft thuds of footsteps walking away until they'd almost faded completely, and he jumped as he realized that Shigaraki had left. Trying to steady his rapid breathing, he mentally counted to ten to try to calm himself. He then heard paper crinkling and froze, his eyes sliding downwards to see the edges of the envelope crumpled under his fingers.

_Izuku - Read In Case of Emergency_

The familiar strokes of his own handwriting seemed to call out to him like an old friend, trying to comfort him. Once again his thoughts returned to the possibility of a quirk that mimicked handwriting, a possibility that seemed even _more_ likely now that he knew Shigaraki was involved. This could be a trap, some sort of way to get his guard down.

This situation was also, without a doubt, an absolute emergency.

Swallowing harshly, after a moment's hesitation he turned the envelope and opened the flap, pulling out several folded sheets of paper. He unfolded them with shaking hands and saw his handwriting once more, the words "_DON'T PANIC!_" written at the very top of the first page and underlined multiple times. Beneath it were six words that made him hold his breath:

_Dear Izuku,_

_Hi, this is you._

* * *

**At long last here it is, the giant MHA fic I've been working on!**

**I've had this on the backburner for a while now, since... Last August, apparently. Wow. A heads up, this is going to be a HUGE story. The draft is already at 15 chapters, and that's not counting sections and scenes I've cut out or rewrote. It's constantly evolving. ****This story will primarily follow the six characters here, but they won't be the only Class 1-A members we'll get to see.**

**I****t took a while to decide the title. I ended up borrowing from the lyrics of "Hero" by Elizaveta. It was a toss-up between this and the line _Gamble an Unknown Price_ from ****"What Did We Know" by Rachel Rose Mitchell. Both of these songs are INCREDIBLE and really fit this story's themes and plot, but I decided that the energy of Hero is more in tune with this story's atmosphere. I highly recommend listening to both of them!  
**

**For now I'll probably be doing updates once a week. I hope you enjoy the ride!**


	2. Chapter 2: Calm and Rational

Chapter 2

.::Calm and Rational::.

By the time Shouto finally hauled himself onto a river bank the sky had become much lighter, sunrise finally taking effect and brightening the world. He dragged himself out of the water and sprawled on his back with a tired gasp, his limbs splayed outwards as he greedily sucked in air and tried to rest his weary muscles.

He couldn't tell how much time had passed since he first dove into the icy river in his desperate bid to escape, but he suspected it had been at _least_ half an hour. Most of that time had been spent traveling underwater, surfacing for air only when absolutely necessary to avoid being seen by any potential pursuers. Each time he resurfaced the scenery underwent massive changes, the river's swift current carrying him away even faster than he'd expected.

Exposed to the dry air at last, Shouto could feel his clothes clinging to him uncomfortably, making him grimace. _At least I can fix that,_ he thought as he willed the left half of his body to generate more heat to dry it out. It took some more intense concentration than usual since he hadn't needed to do this very often in the past, but he could still let his mind wander enough to reflect over his situation.

Right now, it looked like he'd successfully gotten away, but the sheer _ease_ of it left him more wary and suspicious than anything. At some point during his escape he'd expected to hear angry shouting behind him, or to surface for air and find some random Villain on the riverside pointing him out. But since waking up, he never spied so much as another soul.

If that building had indeed been the League of Villains' base, there should have been a stampede his way the moment Dabi yelled out. The most logical explanation he could think of was that Dabi had been there alone. But _why?_ Did that mean he'd been trusted to guard Shouto alone—or that he'd captured Shouto for personal reasons unrelated to the League? Their encounter during the attack at the summer camp flashed to mind unbidden, how the man had jeeringly addressed him before disappearing into the portal with Bakugou.

"_How sad... Todoroki Shouto._"

Just remembering his taunting smirk sent chills down his spine, making him grind his teeth in frustration. When faced with Dabi he couldn't help but recall how _helpless_ he had felt back then, unable to do anything to save his classmate, and it made his blood boil.

Not what he needed right now.

Scowling, he sat up and looked down at his now-dried clothing, eyes narrowing critically. Now that the sense of urgency had faded he took time to study it in more detail. The clothing had obvious signs of wear. The jeans had a hole in the right knee, and the hem of the t-shirt was starting to fray. The hooded jacket he wore over it looked particularly well-used, the black fabric frayed around the sleeves' cuffs, and the left sleeve even looked a little singed.

Interestingly, the jacket had deep pockets sealed with zippers, and he now realized he could feel something in them. Hesitating, he unzipped one and reached inside, his fingers brushing against a bundled wad of fabric and something plastic. He pulled out the fabric first, unwrapping it to find... an eye patch?

He paused, confirming it was, indeed, a surgical eye patch, the color a little off and no longer a pristine white. Probably not that new. He glanced at the rest of the wad of fabric and recognized a medical mask usually worn when one had allergies or colds. It looked considerably fresher than the eye patch at least. Reaching back into the pocket to grab the other item, he pulled out a pair of surprisingly large sunglasses.

This... this would be useful. He didn't know where he was or if any Villains might be nearby, so he definitely needed to keep a low profile until he found help. The eye patch and mask combo might stick out a bit _too_ much, but the glasses alone would easily hide the scar on his right side. If he put up the hood and covered his hair, he should be able to avoid notice until he could find a Hero.

Assuming, of course, the Villains didn't recognize his clothes. Shouto grimaced at the thought, knowing they would likely remember the clothing they'd put him in. He didn't even want to _think_ about how he must have been changed into this, or whether the boxers he could feel under the jeans even belonged to him. He didn't exactly have any other clothing he could wear though.

He shelved the uncomfortable thought for now and opened the other pocket, hoping for a decent distraction from his sudden discomfort.

This time, he felt a cell phone and a tangled charger.

He perked up instantly as he pulled it out. It wasn't his phone, and the screen had several cracks near the edge, but it was better than nothing. Crossing his fingers that the impromptu swim hadn't damaged it, he moved to press the power button only to pause. Through the spider web of cracks on the screen he could faintly glimpse his reflection, the sight hazy and too dark to really be clear like a mirror. Even so though, he could immediately recognize a key difference from his usual appearance:

_His hair was a single dark color._

Raising a hand to carefully touch the ends of his hair, he noted the texture felt _different_ than he remembered. Slightly more coarse, maybe a bit dirty, like it hadn't been properly washed in a while. He yanked a strand loose and held it up to his eye to squint at it. It looked pitch black, which made no sense since he'd pulled it from his right side—the side with _white_ hair.

"What the hell?" he hissed, panic starting to bubble inside him. Did they _dye his hair while he slept_? How did he sleep through that?!

_No,_ he thought abruptly, silencing his rising unease as his more logical side took over. The texture of his hair didn't fit with that theory. He could tell by touching it that it hadn't been properly washed in at least a few days, meaning the color had been like that for at least that long. On that note, he distinctly remembered taking a shower last night so it should be clean. He briefly considered a body-switching quirk, but immediately dismissed it since he still had his quirk as well as his scar.

So his memories had been erased, then? That seemed like the most logical explanation. The specific details could wait though. For now he pressed the power button on the phone, holding his breath until the screen _finally_ lit up with the company's logo. Never had the boot up process felt so long, the seconds seeming to stretch into minutes as he waited for it to finish. Finally the screen shifted to a generic phone background patterned after fire, making him snort.

_Might be Dabi's then,_ he thought, thinking of the man's blue flames. Something about the memory made his stomach twist uncomfortably, but he pushed it away for the moment and swiped across the screen. An entry box for a pin code came up, making him grimace. He didn't know what the code might be, and he didn't dare try to guess it in case it might be programmed to send some sort of location alert in case of a wrong guess.

While he couldn't unlock it, the lock screen at least showed the time and date, and his eyes quickly darted towards it: November 14th, 7:19 AM.

His stomach tightened with sudden dread, a cold chill washing over him that had nothing to do with the wind or his Quirk. No, that couldn't be right. Not because he'd _lost_ any time, but because that lined up _exactly_ with what the date should be. Last night he remembered seeing the date November 13th when he checked his phone after hearing it ring in the shower. Once again he unconsciously reached for his hair, the stands still unclean under his fingertips.

_What's going on?_

* * *

'_DON'T PANIC!'_

Izuku found the underlined instructions at the top of the letter very hard to follow as he stood in an unfamiliar bedroom in the middle of the League of Villains' apparent headquarters. He took another deep, calming breath as he forced himself to look down at the rest of the letter, noting the paper shook a bit as his hands trembled. '_Don't panic,_' his handwriting said. Easier said than done.

Part of him questioned if he should even bother reading it, because chances were the letter was fake and he'd be wasting time. On the other hand though, he was already kind of _absolutely screwed over_.

Right now, it was safe to assume he was in the heart of the League of Villains' headquarters. Escaping on his own would be nigh-impossible; Shigaraki alone could easily kill him, and he had no idea who else might be there. Chances were he'd be mobbed the second he opened the door. He winced and squeezed his eyes shut, forcibly shoving down his shudder at the thought of who (or _what_) might be outside the door.

The only thing going for him was that he hadn't been restrained, which didn't add up. A lot of things didn't add up, actually. Shigaraki's tone hadn't been cruel when he called out to him, sounding almost _gentle_, which Izuku honestly thought might be even creepier than if he'd been threatening him. Along with that, this room didn't match up with a prison cell; in fact, all signs pointed to it being someone's bedroom.

He frowned and looked up at the mirror, focusing on the photos he'd noticed taped along the edges during his cursory inspection after first waking up. He hadn't actually looked at them yet, but now that he did he sucked in a sharp breath, immediately recognizing Shigaraki's withered-looking face in the topmost one.

The Villain sat in what looked like a bar, his chapped lips pulled upwards in a creepy-looking smile and the deep wrinkles above his eyes creased further by the expression. Behind the counter stood Kurogiri, the man's misty form constrained into a _bartender_ uniform of all things as he polished a glass. Izuku almost didn't notice him, his attention focused on the prosthetic hand Shigaraki held up with the palm facing the camera and fingers spread as if _waving_.

Gulping, Izuku tore his eyes away from the photo to look down at the next one. And then immediately regretted it as he recognized his _own_ face.

He was incredibly young in this one, standing in a park with Kacchan covered in dirt and sporting big grins at the camera. He'd been too young to remember actually taking the picture, it had been taken but he still recognized it instantly, it had been taken way back when they'd been toddlers. Back before Kacchan manifested his Quirk and Izuku had been diagnosed as Quirkless, before they'd grown apart.

Its presence _here_ chilled him, a deep shudder coursing through his body. Last he'd seen it had been when he moved into the dorms at UA, when he'd looked at it and decided to stow it in a drawer just in case the other boy ever decided to visit the room for some reason. Back then it had been in a frame, but here it just hung loose on the mirror, held in place by a piece of tape. Why the heck would _this_ photo be here out of all the other pictures he owned?

At this point, Izuku honestly didn't know which picture he found creepiest anymore: that one, or the photo below it showing him and his parents. It looked innocent enough at first glance. They were at home at the kitchen table, Izuku beaming at the camera as he sat next to a birthday cake with a candle shaped like the number eight on it while his parents smiled behind him.

While he couldn't decide if it was the creepiest, this one was probably the most _concerning_, because _he didn't remember it_. No, more than that, he remembered his dad had missed his birthday that year due to a storm delaying his flight back from America.

_This photo shouldn't exist._

_Okay._ Okay. This made no sense. This made no sense. THIS MADE NO SENSE. _Don't panic,_ he mentally commanded himself in an attempt to calm down, and then paused as he recognized the words as an echo of the letter in his hands. He snapped his eyes back to the paper instantly, his breath catching in his throat as he looked at his handwriting.

'_Dear Izuku,_

_ Hi, this is you.'_

Those six words served as an anchor for Izuku, roping him out of his anxieties and giving him something to _focus_ on. He still didn't know for sure if this handwriting belonged to him or some imposter, but right now it didn't matter. Nothing about the situation made any sense, and at this moment this letter might be his only clue to what was going on.

Gritting his teeth, he silently counted to ten and paced his breathing to something less like hyperventilating, and then began reading.

_'Dear Izuku,_

_ Hi, this is you. Sorry in advance, I know this is probably really awkward and scary for you, so I'll just get to this point. If you're reading this, then you're probably having a memory-loss episode. Again. It happens sometimes._'

He paused. That... was not how he expected the letter to go. At all. Frowning, after a moment he resumed reading, squinting at the paper more closely.

'_When we were twelve we got attacked by a guy whose quirk screwed with our memories. We got better, but sometimes our memories randomly get a little messed up and we forget again for a while. We (as in, me and everyone else, not just you and me) call them "episodes" because it's just easier. We don't know why it still happens, but it does. So I decided to just write this letter to catch you up on everything (and so we don't have another "escape" incident). I also keep a daily journal, but it's easier to go over the "bigger picture" things in a letter first._

_ So to start, the episodes usually leave us with really hazy memories, and what we remember seems to vary a lot in each one. First off, you may or may not recognize Shigaraki Tomura as a Villain. Don't panic! He won't hurt you! Actually, we call him Tomura-nii. We've been living with him and the Villain Alliance since we were eight._

_ If you don't know why we'd start living with them, then, well... Sit down. If you remember, just skip the next paragraph._'

Izuku paused again, feeling his stomach churn as he considered the two paragraphs. A memory-scrambling quirk? Episodes of amnesia? Villain Alliance? _Tomura-nii!?_

Distantly, he thought it was amazing how _two paragraphs_ could totally throw everything he knew out the window. He'd barely even started reading this thing and already it sounded like some sort of fiction. Glancing at the warning to sit down, he decided it couldn't be more shocking than the other stuff so far, so he just continued reading where he stood.

He regretted it immediately.

'_When we were eight, Dad got into a bad car accident in America. He was okay, but he couldn't fly home alone. We still had school so we stayed with Kacchan's family while Mom went to America. On their way back... the plane crashed. Everyone died._'

Izuku reread that five times, eyes wide and disbelieving and a strange numbness slowly creeping over him. _No way._ Trembling, he opened his mouth and a shaky breath escaped him, tinged with a high-pitched sound he recognized as the start of a sob. Feeling his legs begin to wobble, he turned and staggered towards the bed before he could collapse, his steps far too clumsy for his liking.

When he got close enough he just threw himself onto the mattress before his legs could give out entirely, landing with a thump and burying his face in the blanket. The paper fell onto the comforter forgotten for the moment, his empty hands clutching at fabric instead. Squeezing his eyes shut, he quietly counted to ten and tried to control his breathing.

Five sentences. Five sentences was all it took to make his world feel like it shattered.

_ It's a lie,_ he thought, _This wasn't written by me, it's all just lies to screw with my head and make it easier to manipulate me._ Izuku knew it was likely a trap, meant to shock him and lower his guard. Yet while he knew that logically, emotionally he felt the beginnings of panic and despair starting to bubble inside him, a crushing sense of _emptiness_ blossoming painfully in his chest.

Even if the letter might be full of lies, something about reading it in his own handwriting made it feel more _real_, and he could feel the familiar sensation of tears springing in his eyes. For a minute he just stayed like that, trying to control his breaths and waiting for the tightness in his chest to loosen.

Izuku knew he couldn't stay like that for long though. His current situation didn't give him much leeway to waste time freaking out, not when there were Villains all around. Soon he forced himself to sit up, rubbing at his eyes as he slumped against the wall. He turned his attention back to the letter, his expression smoothing into a stony mask of determination even as an overwhelming sense of dread crept over him.

Izuku had no idea what to expect from the letter anymore, and less idea if he could even trust it. However, right now this small stack of papers was his only clue as to what was going on. Even if he had every reason to doubt its contents, his only alternative would be to actually go into the hallway and look around, which he'd prefer _not_ to do. At the very least the letter gave him a starting point. The opening paragraphs mentioned something about daily journals, so he could poke around to look for them afterwards.

First, though, he needed to finish reading this. Mentally steeling himself, he grabbed the papers and turned them over to resume.

'_After that we lived with the Bakugou family for two months. Then, when the school year ended, we ran away. Don't ask me the reason. I don't think we were thinking that clearly back then, we were just kinda upset and felt like a Deku. And that's when we ended up meeting Tomura-nii and Kurogiri-san. They're not actually the ones who found us, but if you don't remember how we got to the headquarters or why we're still here... Well, it might be better I don't say. Sorry. I don't want to write it down where someone could possibly find it._

_ Just, understand. Tomura-nii is our family now. He cares about us, a lot. I mean it. He's even killed people who tried to hurt us before. (Freaky, I know! It's his way of showing he cares, he just had a bad childhood. Like, really, really bad.) As far as he's concerned, we—as in, __you__, Izuku—are his only family, whether you remember him or not. So don't be afraid of him, he won't hurt you._

_ The others are pretty okay too, especially Kurogiri-san and Mr. Compress. Aiko-nee is nice too of course, but she doesn't come by too often anymore. Oh man I hope you remember her, I can't write down about her anywhere. If you don't though, I swear you can trust her._

_ Just—you are absolutely safe right now. There's no need to freak out. No one will hurt you._

_ I wish that was all I needed to write, but the episodes can screw with our memories a lot. Those are just the most urgent facts. We've tried to run away before thinking we were in danger, and it usually ends pretty messily for everyone involved. Mainly, I cry a lot and Tomura-nii ends up disintegrating like three different walls in frustration. It's really embarrassing after we get all our memories back, and kind of the reason I decided to write this letter in the first place. Well, one of them, anyway._

_ Hopefully now you're a bit more calm, so I can get to the really big, world-shattering stuff. As in, __literally__ world-changing events. Sometimes we forget this stuff too, so I hope you're still sitting down._'

Once again Izuku stopped reading, this time heeding the warning and taking a moment to brace himself. After how shocking the rest of the letter had been, he didn't doubt the sincerity of the 'world-shattering' bit. Even though he kept reminding himself it was likely all a fabrication, it was easy to forget that since he was reading it in _his own handwriting_.

Reading it inside this room didn't help matters, either. He glanced up at the Hero posters plastered on the walls, at the bookshelf full of books with spines he recognized from his own bookshelf. The still-open drawers in the dresser where he could glimpse clothing in his size that matched his tastes. The room might be unfamiliar, but the space felt like somewhere he would live, the contents subtly pointing at him as the owner.

The only real disparity was the lack of anything about All Might, but Izuku knew Shigaraki had a grudge against his mentor. If he _did_ start living with the Villain at a young age—especially after running away—he probably wouldn't have much All Might memorabilia on hand. An action figure and hoodie, maybe, but Shigaraki seemed like the type of person who would just disintegrate _any_ merchandise out of spite. When taking the story the letter told into account, it... made sense.

Blinking, Izuku quickly shoved the thought away, his frown deepening. _Focus, you still don't know if any of this is actually true._ He took a few seconds to steel his nerves before turning his attention back to the letter.

It still didn't prepare him for the next sentence.

_'When we were seven, All Might died in a battle against the villain All for One._'

* * *

**Thank you for the large support so far! I've gotten a good amount of reviews so far, and a lot of favorites and follows. I'm glad you guys like it so much!  
**

**So ****Izuku's letter has the highlight here. It doesn't explain how he got here, but hey, at least we have an explanation for other Izuku's life with the League. Also, because this is an alternate universe, the League of Villains is called the Villain Alliance there. No reason to keep the same name.**

**Not much else to say. I'll be posting at least one chapter a week, probably on the weekends, so see you then!**


	3. Chapter 3: Not All Lies

Chapter 3

.::Not All Lies::.

_All Might is not dead._

The words kept repeating in Izuku's head as he stared at the letter, a silent mantra to combat the numbness creeping over him from that last sentence.

Of all the claims in the letter so far, that had to be the one he despised the most, the most ridiculous and unbelievable one of all. His fingers scrunched up the paper as he glared at the offending sentence, his face twisting into a scowl.

Even now he could feel the power of One for All flowing under his skin, indisputable proof of his meeting with the man. If All Might had truly died when he was seven, then there was no way Izuku could have gotten that power. Therefore, the letter had to be lying. Nothing but lies, period. End of story.

_Except..._

His gaze flitted upwards, honing in on the mirror where the pictures were taped. He couldn't see them from the bed, but he clearly remembered the unfamiliar picture of him and his parents. Even though he didn't recognize it, he had no doubts that it was his real parents in it. His mother's eyes had that warm joy and love tinged with an almost sad sort of glow from her constant concern over him, and his dad's grin had that relieved, content slant he always had when he managed to actually _be_ there for a big event.

No shape-shifting quirk could mimic those sort of expressions, the genuine emotion conveyed in the minutest details of their faces.

_So why couldn't he remember the photo?_

His breathing had become fast and uneven again, he realized. He grit his teeth and forced himself to calm down, looking down at the letter with a frown.

The idea of All Might dying still made him equally furious and scared, but he couldn't let his emotions get the best of him. He needed to keep on reading, and so he did. This time he did so with a resolve to _finish it_, determined not to stop until he reached the end.

'_After that, everything changed. The world's balance shifted without him, and villains became more commonplace. When we were around twelve, UA High School shut down after a group of villains (NOT Tomura-nii or the Villain Alliance!) attacked the entrance exam, slaughtering almost everyone taking it. I think that made the imbalance even worse. Society hasn't fallen apart, but it's still not as safe as when we were little._

_ A lot of heroes have died or left the scene since then. There aren't many agencies that operate with a public headquarters anymore, too many attacks on them with too much collateral damage. Most heroes are more underground now. Some still talk to media, but they're way more secretive after a lot of bad incidents with families and friends getting attacked. Rescue heroes like Thirteen get left alone though, since they don't fight Villains, so that's good at least._

_ But there's a lot less people becoming heroes now, because it's becoming more dangerous. Sometimes even kids with strong quirks will get targeted by villains, so lately everyone—hero or civilian—is trying to keep a lower profile. Some people become vigilantes though, which is a bit... messy._

_ Society's kinda messy, but it's starting to sort of calm down, I guess. Because heroes aren't as common anymore police are allowed to use their quirks too, and heroes mostly focus on the bigger crimes. There's some sort of massive underground hero network, sort of like a resistance that targets the major villain groups, but we don't know many details. Tomura-nii is really frustrated by that._

_ Tomura-nii and the Villain Alliance are kind of new, but they've gotten a reputation. Because of that, we—as in, you—are also sort of wanted. Most people don't know who we are and there aren't any public wanted posters of us, but we do know our name's been leaked to that underground network. Actually, during the last episode I had, a new hero infiltrated one of our other bases and tried to get us to leave with him. Kurogiri stopped him before we left and the hero got away, but it was a close call. That's the other reason I decided to write this, I guess, to prevent a repeat of that._

_ That should cover all the big stuff. Depending on how much you remember I know it might be hard to believe all of this, but it's true. If you need proof, our 'Hero Analysis for the Future' books will fill you in on who's dead and who's alive. They're on the bookshelf in our room, I update them whenever someone dies. I also started listing villain quirks in them, so you can use them to help get familiar with everyone here._ _And if you still have doubts, you can just go online with our phone or laptop to look this up. I mean, villains can't fake the entire internet, right?_

_ Other than that, the rest of this letter will just be a list of major ongoing events in our lives that you should probably know about. I'll date them and cross out stuff that's not relevant anymore, but hopefully there won't be anything urgent. Tomura-nii tries to keep us out of Alliance business since we're, you know. Quirkless. Guess that's one perk, right? Heh._

_ Anyways, good luck Izuku. Your memories will come back eventually, so just put up with it for a bit. There's a map of the base in Journal 2 if you need help getting around.'_

After that, the next page contained a list of dates and events, several of them crossed out just as promised. Izuku ignored it for the moment, getting up from the bed to stalk straight to the bookshelf. When he got close he could recognize one shelf to be populated with his Hero Analysis notebooks, only it contained far more volumes than he remembered keeping. Pulling out the one on the far end, he saw the title "QUIRK ANALYSIS VOLUME 31" on the cover in his handwriting.

The difference in the title made him frown, immediately doubtful of its veracity based on that alone. When he opened it though he quickly realized why he might have changed the title. The first page showed a rough sketch of Toga Himiko, accompanied by a detailed analysis of her Quirk. Definitely not a hero. It didn't tell him anything new, just further re-confirmed Toga could transform into people by drinking their blood.

He read over the notes closely, looking for the smallest discrepancy, but even so he couldn't help but notice how much it fit his own voice. It included speculations about the exact limitations of her Quirk, and comments about how she seemed unstable and a bit creepy, but _'Tomura-nii promised he won't leave her alone with me too much._' That made him blanch a bit, and he put the notebook back before turning to the earlier ones.

According to the letter, he ran away at age eight and started living with Shigaraki then. If Izuku seriously attempted to run away, he couldn't imagine _not_ bringing his notebooks with him, a suspicion he confirmed when he pulled out the first one to find the colorful notebook he'd received in preschool with his childish scrawl dubbing it as _Hero_ Analysis for the Future, Volume One. For the time being he set it on another shelf and turned to the other notebooks, scrounging his memories for hints as to when he wrote each one.

The letter noted two major points of divergence in his life, the most obvious being when his parents died at age eight. Before that though, All Might died when he was seven. The volume from that time would be the most impacted by it, and have the most concrete evidence of the change in history.

He couldn't remember exactly when he wrote each one, having spent years accumulating his analysis books, but he vaguely recalled being excited when his mom gave him an especially nice All Might notebook for his seventh birthday. Back then he'd promised to set it aside for when he would start Volume Six, though ultimately he'd dedicated it purely to the number one Hero. At the time Izuku had been halfway through the previous one, but he couldn't remember when he moved on.

Hesitating, he reached out and pulled Volume Five. The letter didn't say _when_ All Might died; it could have been anywhere from a week later to just days before his eighth birthday. He was pretty sure he managed to hit Volume Six before his next birthday though, so Volume Five would be his best bet. Taking a deep breath, he opened the cover and looked at the page.

The first page had a drawing of a newbie hero who debuted the day he got the notebook, a man named Penn who could manipulate ink. Izuku remembered his career ended only two years later after his hometown got struck by a tsunami, suffering serious injuries while rescuing people that landed him in the hospital for two months. Afterwards he announced his retirement, explaining his parents had died in the tragedy and he wanted to support his younger sister who had also been seriously injured then.

It had been one of the first times Izuku could remember a hero retiring in his lifetime. Heroes rarely retired so early, so it had caused a large stir in the media. Later when he got older he'd learn some people had harshly criticized his decision as selfish, but he recalled being in awe that even his _reason_ for retiring—to care for his sister—had been heroic. It had been one of his first looks at the real-world risks of heroics.

However, according to this notebook, that hadn't happened.

'_DEAD_,' declared messily scrawled writing right next to his name. He felt a chill run down his spine, and he looked down to find the word repeated all around the edges of the sketch, filling the margins and running off the page. The strokes were rough and jagged, clearly written under great stress. In a few places he could even see small holes in the page where the pencil had pushed hard enough to tear. The few spaces void of the word told of a tragic battle with Toxic Chainsaw that went horribly wrong.

Stomach twisting in discomfort, Izuku began turning the pages and felt his horror only grow. Several of the entries had been similarly edited and marked, naming hero after hero as dead or forcibly retired. Some had the same messy scrawl and rips, but perhaps more disturbing were the ones with much neater editing. A more mature and steady hand calmly noted "dead" next to names along with a date, and then added notes in the margins on how they died, or a comment saying "check volume X for details". The sheer orderliness of the writing on those entries spoke volumes of the lack of emotion he'd felt writing them, as if he'd gotten used to it.

His hands stilled as he reached another such entry, but this time not because of who was on it, but who was _next_. He had referenced his old notebooks enough to have a vague sense of where to find each hero, and the person on next page had been the most heavily referenced one of all. Swallowing, he slowly turned the page, genuinely dreading what he'd find.

A childish drawing of All Might stared up at him, grinning with a too-big smile and cartoonishly large muscles. However, the lines had become warped, the paper littered with long-dried wet spots that distorted the pencil markings. _Tearstains,_ he realized. Below the drawing, in far-too tiny and shaky handwriting, was the word, "_Dead._"

Seeing that word—so small and feeble-looking even on paper—made his stomach drop. The page next to it, which had once contained the first of several pages of excited scribbling about his then-mysterious quirk, was gone. Not just ripped out, but removed entirely, not even a shred of ripped paper left in the spine hinting at its existence. As far as he could tell all of the pages in the section were like that, the next one instead blank but allowing him to faintly glimpse a drawing of the next hero on the other side.

Staring down at it, Izuku felt... hollow. While part of his brain still screamed it was all a lie, a fabrication to fool him into believing the letter's story, something about looking at his notebook made it actually feel more _real_. He had never realized just how much emotion could be conveyed through handwriting alone, and this notebook had it in spades.

_It's my writing for sure,_ he thought distantly. But was it really? While it definitely hadn't been a mere forgery of his handwriting, that didn't make it _real_. It could be an illusion set in his mind, pulling details from his memories to create a believable lie. Of course, he didn't know of any Quirks that could create such a heavily detailed illusion—usually they tended to be small and much more limited, not one that could alter a person's entire perception of the world like they'd been thrown into another dimension—

And once more, his thoughts ground to a halt.

_Another dimension._

It... it wasn't unheard of, a Quirk that could warp to other dimensions. The ones he knew of involved personal pocket dimensions though, not some alternate version of reality. But even so, Izuku couldn't outright dismiss the idea. The science behind Quirks still had a lot of room for discovery. Brand new mutations and never before-seen abilities seemed to pop up every day, and depending on how such a Quirk functioned, he could see someone disguising it as a different type of Quirk altogether.

If such a Quirk _did_ exist and had been used on him, then it probably operated by jumping to alternate timelines. It seemed like the simplest idea, weird as it was to use "simple" here. Instead of several massive changes like people having different Quirks—or even no Quirks at all—it would be easier to simply go to a timeline where a single event had changed. And he didn't need to think long to figure out what caused the major divergence: All Might's death.

A world without All Might was beyond his imagination. In Izuku's world, the man had just retired a few short months earlier, and they were only just starting to see the effects of the void left by his departure from the hero scene. He couldn't begin to picture the ramifications of him dying suddenly in battle, but the letter's description of society in this world seemed to fit the bill.

Turning the idea over in his head, Izuku frowned and glanced to the side, his gaze resting on the laptop on the desk. The letter had said that if he had any doubts he could look it up online, and he had no better ideas. After all, as his handwriting pointed out, no villain could fake the entire internet. Closing the notebook and sliding it back onto the shelf, he quietly plodded over to the desk and slid into the chair before lifting the lid.

His own laptop had an All Might background, but this one had a picture of some video game character he didn't recognize. He shuddered slightly for reasons he didn't really get, and quickly opened the browser and began clicking around. He recognized a lot of the sites on the bookmark list as ones he had often frequented, but also saw several unfamiliar ones. Clicking on a news site he trusted, he skimmed the selection of headlines with a keen eye.

Nothing particularly stood out—at least, not in the way he'd hoped. The top story noted a kidnapping attempt dated the prior day that had been thwarted at the last minute, and he opened it to find a recounting about a recent string of kidnappings. All of them targeted children and teenagers with strong or useful Quirks, leading to speculation that it was the work of a Villain organization trying to recruit people.

Izuku felt his stomach churn with discomfort, a visceral sense of unease that left him shivering. He quietly exited the article and skimmed the other headlines, before abandoning the news site entirely and opening a new tab. He didn't know what bookmark to check next, but the browser opened a search engine automatically with the tab, the blank field calling for him to type something.

His first choice was obvious: _UA High School_. The letter said it closed about four years ago, and he couldn't believe that—just _couldn't_. But when he hit 'enter,' a string of articles appeared with titles like '_Tragedy of UA_' and '_Massacre Closes Top Hero School_.' His stomach roiled at the headlines, feeling the blood drain from his face as he saw thumbnails of photos full of smoking buildings and people. Swallowing harshly, he clicked one of the articles and began reading. Then he clicked another, and another.

By the time he finally closed the browser half an hour later his mood had plummeted, his blood ice cold and just feeling generally _numb_. The sheer _volume_ of articles and information had erased any doubts about this potentially being an illusory world or some dream. No illusory Quirk could conjure so many different articles with such extensive detail; even the strongest illusions had their limits, and creating a full-blown world with its own, unique history was definitely beyond any he'd heard of.

Izuku closed the laptop silently, his mind reeling as he returned to the bed where he'd left the letter. Picking it up gingerly, he skimmed over his writing with a more somber mood. He still had all sorts of questions about his situation, still didn't know _how_ this was happening, but the letter was his only real source for his personal circumstances. With that thought he went to the back and looked at the list of major 'current' events, noting the first had been dated February of the previous year, and began reading it almost numbly.

A majority of it had been crossed out, suggesting the events were "finished" or at least no longer relevant. He struggled to make out some of the crossed-out words anyway, the slashes rendering some of the kanji frustratingly difficult to read, before finally giving up and flipping closer to the end of the list. The last several events were unmarked and easily legible, and he went back to the earliest one and started reading.

Not many of them seemed particularly notable. Just warnings to be careful if he went out due to increased hero activity in the area, a somber announcement that someone with a name he didn't recognize had died, and a notice to check his journal about a potential new recruit who made him feel a bit uncomfortable ("_I feel bad about how everyone's treating him, but I might be able to be friends with him if he can warm up to me_").

When Izuku reached the final item he noticed it was dated November 9, about a week before the last date he remembered. Realizing he didn't know the date (or time, for that matter), he glanced around the room and quickly spied a calendar hanging on the wall above his bed next to a poster of Selkie. Each day had been clearly marked off, identifying today as November 14. That... matched up with his memories alright.

With that settled he turned back to read the final item only to freeze. Eyes going wide, he jumped up and ran to the bookshelf, pulling out the notebooks until he found one marked Journal 2. Practically ripping the cover open, he found a hand-drawn map on the second page and quickly analyzed it to get his bearings before racing out of the room, holding it over one arm. The letter lay on his bed all but forgotten, the final event still ringing in his mind:

'_November 9: The League captured Kacchan to try to recruit him. He's in Room 7. I don't know what to do._'

* * *

**So, fun story: my laptop is currently in the shop because I dropped it and damaged the screen. The data on it is fine and I'll get it back Monday or Tuesday, and I had a copy of this chapter on another computer to edit. But yeah, friendly reminder to ALWAYS back up your files people.**

**Otherwise, behold, the first of many mind-screws for Izuku! Any guesses on how the meeting will go?  
**


	4. Chapter 4: An Unsettling Meeting

Chapter 4

.::An Unsettling Meeting::.

Kyouka drummed her fingers against her cheek in an unsteady rhythm as she sat at the kitchen table, glaring down at the (_her?_) cell phone. She had spent the past twenty minutes just scrolling through various news sites trying to get her bearings, and so far nothing made sense.

All of the news stories seemed pretty run of the mill at first glance, with maybe a few more about villains than usual, but it didn't take long to notice some strange patterns. For starters, _police_ tended to use their quirks on the more petty villains. That alone stood out because only Pro Heroes were allowed to use their quirks in that sort of manner. That led her to notice another detail: there were less stories about heroes.

When she switched to the tabloid sites she found them almost totally void of Pros, focusing instead on musicians and actors. Kyouka frowned as she scrolled down the list of headlines, fingers tapping her cheek at a faster pace. The tabloids LOVED talking about Pro Heroes, to the point they had entire magazines dedicated purely to intruding on heroes' personal lives. The distinct _absence_ of so much as even Present Mic felt wrong.

A frantic pounding on the door jarred her from her thoughts. She quickly got up and took her phone with her as she went to answer it, typing in another website address even as she unlocked it. "JIROU!" Kaminari screeched as the door opened, flinging himself at her with tears in his eyes. Kyouka neatly sidestepped the sudden embrace without looking up and the blond stumbled forward into the now-empty space, nearly falling. He caught his balance and quickly righted himself while she used her foot to kick the door shut behind him.

"Don't yell, I don't know how sound proof the walls are," she muttered, pulling up a different window in the browser. She finally raised her head to find Kaminari staring at her with panic in his eyes, not that she could blame him. Deep down she felt the same sort of unease and anxiety, the sheer mass of unknowns leaving her feeling more vulnerable than ever, but she forcibly smothered those feelings as she focused on the blond's rambling.

"We're totally in Hosu!" he whined. "I looked around while I was heading here and this is _absolutely_ Hosu and I don't remember moving here, this makes no sense—"

"We already established that, idiot," Kyouka cut in dryly, shooting him an annoyed glare. During their earlier phone call she'd checked the tags on the unfamiliar uniform for the school's name, and a quick internet search had turned up a regular private high school in Hosu. When Kaminari found the same school name on his own uniform, she'd quickly opened the map on her phone to get her address and sent it to him.

Part of her was impressed he'd managed to find his way there without getting lost. Normally she'd expect him to find her fine, even if he barely managed to scrape by in their classes, but he also had a tendency to panic in crazy, unexpected situations. That had also been why she'd decided against going to _his_ location instead. Whoever waited could use the time to investigate on their phones, and Kyouka had some doubts about Kaminari's ability to calmly gather information in a short time.

Her decision had paid off, she thought as she gestured to the table. "Sit down. I found some stuff, but it's not going to be pretty." Kaminari whimpered as he scurried over to the kitchen table, sinking into the chair and looking at her with baleful yellow eyes. Kyouka didn't react to the look as she slid into the seat next to him, putting her phone down on the table so he could see the screen. "I looked up UA and found this."

Shooting her a hesitant look, he leaned forward to read it and then squeaked in surprise, the color draining from his face. "W-what the hell!?" he sputtered. "UA's _closed_!?"

"Apparently," she confirmed with a grimace. That had been the most shocking discovery she'd made so far, a full ten minutes spent just skimming article after article about the event, looking for some hint it was a lie. Biting the inside of her cheek, she muttered, "It says it closed about four years ago after the entrance exam got attacked and a bunch of kids died...? I didn't read all the details, not enough time, but it looks like there was a giant scandal afterwards and a bunch of people dropped off the radar."

"What the hell," Kaminari whispered, staring at the phone in shock. That summed up her own feelings pretty well.

Sighing, Kyouka took back her phone and switched to another window. "There's a bunch of other stuff that's not right, either. Take a look at this." She put it back down to reveal a photo of an armored man with gold piping along his arms, smoke billowing from his legs as he carried a woman. Beneath it was the headline, "_PRO HERO INGENIUM SAVES TWELVE FROM BUILDING COLLAPSE._"

Neither of them had to voice what was wrong with that photo. Everyone in Class 1-A knew exactly what happened to their class president's older brother, how he had lost the use of his legs after encountering Stain. The fact the article had a date below the headline from just one week earlier sent prickles down their spines.

"This... this is ridiculous," Kaminari finally said, his mouth twitching into a nervous smile as he looked up at her. "I-I mean, this is just—this is just, y'know, impossible! Like, like some kind of joke!" He laughed anxiously as he ran a hand through his hair, the corners of his lips twitching even more as his eyes glimmered with barely-suppressed panic. "I mean, seriously. UA's closed? Ingenium's fine? _Hosu?_ What, are we in some kind of alternate universe?"

"Not like I have any better ideas," Kyouka muttered lowly. That made him startle, his strained smile vanishing as he boggled her wide-eyed.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked after a moment. "You're—you're kidding, right? Just messing with me? _Right?_" His voice rose to a desperate whine towards the end, his mouth twitching in another anxious smile as his eyes silently _pleaded_ for her to agree, to confirm she was messing with him and make some snarky comment about his gullibility. Kyouka remained silent though, her mouth pressing into a thin line, and his face soon fell once more. "No way... That's... Th-that's—"

He sucked in a sharp breath, his face crumpling into despair as he clutched at his head. "Th-this is _insane_! How would that even _work_!? Were we caught up in that mist-guy's mist again and sent here?! But we were in our rooms! Oh, shit, what about everyone else? Are they here too? Would they even _exist_ here!? Oh man oh man oh _man_, I should have paid more attention in class! What do we _do_!?"

As he grew more and more panicked Kyouka just gave a frustrated sigh, bopping the side of his head with her fist. Kaminari yelped in surprise but fell silent, whimpering as he rubbed where she'd hit him. "Oi, calm down," she told him briskly. "I don't know if this is the work of a villain or what, but freaking out won't help."

Kaminari gave another small whimper but nodded, even as his lower lip wobbled with the obvious urge to resume his freak-out. Satisfied he wouldn't launch into another nervous ramble, Kyouka turned her attention back to her phone, switching to the window with information on the high school. "If those uniforms are ours, and I think they are, we're supposed to be students at Munakata High School. No Hero department there."

"I don't want to go to school though!" Kaminari whined before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, fuck that," Kyouka agreed without missing a beat, and the blond nearly fell off his chair at the lack of argument. She'd only considered the idea for a second before dismissing it entirely. Sure, they could get some more information there, but it would be too problematic. She had no idea who she might know there, didn't know her class schedule or what had been covered—she didn't even know where the school _was_. They had an address, sure, but they'd need to look at a map to actually _find_ it.

Yeah, Kyouka _really_ didn't need to deal with high school drama on top of this bullshit.

Of course, Kaminari probably hadn't thought that far beyond "classes suck." He visibly sagged with relief, slumping in his chair with a sigh. "Oh, thank All Might. I'm barely keeping up with the classes at UA, I don't think I can handle classes at a _regular_ high school. Like, what if we had a test today? I don't even know what we'd be studying!"

"Don't worry," Kyouka assured him with a smirk. "You'd fail anyway."

"Yeah, I gue—" He stopped as her words registered and made an offended squawk. "_Hey!_"

Kyouka just smirked, getting up. "Anyways, we should start by figuring out what else is different. Get out your phone and start searching up stuff, I'm gonna find a notebook so we can start writing down a list."

"What should I look up?" Kaminari asked, pulling out his phone obediently.

"Anything," she deadpanned. "Seriously, I have no idea what _isn't_ different. Everything I've looked up so far, the facts are totally different from what I remember." She tactfully decided not to mention All Might. No need to freak him out any _more_.

Kaminari chewed on his lip, his expression becoming determined. "I'm going to try to look up our classmates," he announced, and Kyouka felt her smirk become something more like a smile. Searching for their classmates hadn't even occurred to her in her shock over how much else had changed, but Kaminari had always been more socially-minded than her.

"Alright, you do that. I'll be back with a notebook in a minute." With that she swept out of the kitchen towards the bedroom, feeling her shoulders slump as she stepped inside. Almost reflexively her gaze flicked to the album cover propped up on her desk, her teeth gritting as she forced herself to quickly look away.

She didn't want to think about what it meant.

* * *

The League of Villains' (or, _Villain Alliance_, apparently) base felt like a giant maze, full of twisting hallways and an almost endless number of doors. Only a handful of numbers written on the walls in barely-noticeable marker next to a few doors—all in his own handwriting, Izuku noted—acted as any sort of landmark, each one corresponding to a room in the map in the (his?) journal. His room had been marked with a star and the number 14, but for some reason room 7 was on the _opposite_ end of the floor.

By some miracle he'd managed to reach the hallway holding it without encountering anyone else, and immediately felt like he'd entered a prison ward. The air felt stale and stifling, the doors made of thick metal and containing sliding slots that could be opened to peer inside. Unlike the other doors he'd see so far, these had actual plates with numbers corresponding to the ones on his map.

_This must have been used as a starting point for the map,_ he thought as he glanced around uncomfortably. It explained why room one had been in such a seemingly random location instead of, say, _the entrance_.

A few doors had the slots already open, and he glanced at one as he passed to see what looked like soundproofing material on the walls, as well as... a barred window? Izuku frowned, filing that detail away for later contemplation as he continued down the halls. (_Why didn't _he_ get a window?_) His heartbeat seemed to slowly pick up pace as he passed each door before finally stopping before the one he wanted. The number seven stared at him in bold lettering from the metal plate, the so-called lucky number feeling more ominous than ever.

Heart pounding, Izuku took a breath and stepped forward, raising a shaky hand to open the slat. The metal groaned lowly as he pushed it, making him jerk his hand away with a wince while quickly looking around to see if the noise drew anyone's attention. The hallway remained empty though, and after a few moments he sucked in a breath and turned back to resume opening it, grimacing as the groaning noise continued.

Once it had opened at least an inch he stopped, rising on his toes to peer through the gap. It took less than a second of looking around the near-empty cell before his gaze lit upon a familiar figure on a cot in the back just beneath the barred window, his blood chilling as his eyes met furious red.

_Kacchan._

Izuku felt a lump lodge in his throat as he stared at his old friend, caught between relief at seeing a familiar face and horror at seeing Bakugou in this mess. The other teen's spiky blond hair almost seemed to glow in the early morning sunlight streaming through the window above him, the effect extending to his white t-shirt and gray pinstripe pajama pants to give him an almost casual, peaceful look.

However, any calming effect he exuded was ruined by his eyes, which bore into Izuku with a burning ferocity as his lips curled back in a snarl.

"The hell do you want, Deku?" Bakugou spat, shifting to sit up straighter. As he did Izuku noticed his hands were trapped in bulky metal handcuffs in front of him, just like the ones he'd worn after he'd won the Sports Festival. The sight made Izuku's chest clench painfully, but more than that was the sheer _rage_ in Bakugou's eyes. He'd seen Bakugou angry before—been on the receiving end countless times—but never had it been this intense.

"K-Kacchan," he whispered, and immediately Bakugou sprang to his feet, his face twisting with even _more_ fury.

"_Don't call me that!_" he snapped, veins visibly bulging along his neck. "You don't get the fucking right, shitty Deku!" His harsh tone made Izuku wince, unable to hear anything but hot, burning hatred, so much worse than any other time Bakugou had insulted him. Even worse than the day he'd told Izuku to jump off a roof.

"I-I'm sorry," he whispered, leaning back. The motion caused his heels to lower flat to the floor and put the slot out of sight, and he grimaced before rising on his toes once more. "I—I don't—"

"Just go away," Bakugou cut in, sinking back onto the cot with a scowl. "It's fucking whatever in the morning, at _least_ let me sleep in, dumbass." With that he flopped on his side and rolled over to face the wall, leaving Izuku to stare at him in silent horror. Part of him wanted to wrench the door open and drag him out of there, or to scream or plead with him to act normal, but any words caught in his throat. He felt paralyzed, unable to move as he just stared at his friend's back.

(_Could he even call him his friend?_)

Suddenly something black ensnared the slot's handle and slammed it shut, and Izuku jumped as he spun towards the source. "Wha—" His voice died before he could even finish the thought as he found himself staring at an unfamiliar girl.

She looked about ten or so, with black hair pulled into a small ponytail on the side of her head and a cherry blossom-shaped hairpin pulling her bangs to the side. She wore a simple black dress with a white sailor fuku and red ribbon, but what really caught his attention were her eyes. They looked like they'd been taken from a photo with inverted colors, the irises a nearly luminescent white and the sclera pitch black.

Izuku had seen plenty of people with eyes like that—hell, just look at Ashido—but something about this girl's eyes in particular felt... unsettling. They felt almost empty, void of light, far too flat for a child her age. It just—it didn't look _right_.

As he stared at them he almost didn't notice the shadowy tendril extending from her back towards the door, withdrawing and disappearing into the black fabric of her dress. The entire time she remained perfectly still, just meeting his gaze with a blank face.

"You forgot again," she said. She spoke in a factual manner, her voice quiet and totally devoid of inflection. Izuku jolted at her words, snapped out of his odd stupor.

"I... w-what?" he sputtered.

"You're having an episode," she clarified, still perfectly factual and flat. "Did you read the letter?" More alarm bells started ringing at the question, snapping him to increasing awareness and leaving him wary.

"Um, y-yeah, I did." His response came out more hesitantly than intended, probably a result of the unease curling in his stomach. The girl showed no visible reaction to his obvious nerves, her expression still and unreadable as her gaze seemed to bore into him. _Wrong,_ some voice whispered in his head. _Something's wrong with this girl._ Frowning, he tried to ignore his discomfort and asked, "Sorry, but, wh-who are you...?"

The girl remained silent for a long moment, just... staring at him. Finally though she nodded and held out a hand. "Heiwajima Seiko." Staring at the outstretched hand dumbly, it took a second for Izuku to register she wanted him to shake it. He gripped it hesitantly but when they touched he almost gave a small jolt. Her hand didn't feel particularly _weird_ or anything, but something about it just felt... off. He couldn't put his finger on why though.

That seemed to be a recurring theme with this girl, he thought dismally.

"I-it's nice to meet you, Heiwajima-san," he greeted politely, offering a timid smile. "I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"I know," the girl replied simply, and this time Izuku's flinch was more from embarrassment than nerves. She pulled her hand back and let it fall to her side before adding a simple, "Seiko." It took another second for him to register what she meant, but then Izuku blinked and quickly nodded.

"O-oh, I see. Seiko-chan?" He used the honorific questioningly, uncertain if she would approve. Seiko didn't voice an objection, so he assumed she did and pushed on. "What are you doing... here?" He gestured vaguely at the hallway around them, trying not to grimace too much. He was still hyper-aware that he was essentially in enemy territory, even if it seemed like he might not actually _be_ an enemy here...?

Once again he had to suppress the growing jumble of confusion and panic welling up inside him. He'd barely been awake for a full _hour_, this was way too much stress for such a short time!

"I have nothing better to do," Seiko replied, and, well, at least he had a distraction from that mess.

"Nothing?" he repeated. "B-but, what about, school? Or..." He started to say "_your family_" but stopped himself short. If a child was here, she likely either had no family, or someone here _was_ her family. Wouldn't be the first time a villain pulled their child into their line of work, and unfortunately it wouldn't be the last, either.

"I don't go to school."

"Right," he muttered to himself, scratching the back of his neck as he glanced away sheepishly. That seemed to confirm part of his thoughts, at least.

"Last night you went to bed early because you felt sick." The sudden topic change caught Izuku by surprise, snapping confused eyes back to her.

"H-huh?"

"You said you had a small headache," Seiko elaborated, perfectly flat and emotionless. "Everyone concluded you would likely want to sleep in today, so your absence from breakfast hasn't been viewed as suspicious. You should have another two hours before they start to worry and check on you. If anyone thinks you're acting strangely, you can play it off as still feeling sick."

"I... What?" It occurred to Izuku he'd been stammering a lot during this conversation, but he couldn't help it, too busy trying to wrap his head around what Seiko was implying. If he'd been feeling sick the previous night, it would match up with Shigaraki's comment earlier about breakfast and him feeling bad. Being sick with, say, a cold, would certainly give him an excuse for why his reactions might be a bit off, too.

It was useful, gave him the start for a plan of action, helping ground his nerves. Except... "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"It's a game," Seiko responded simply. "When you have an episode, we see how long it takes for other people to notice." She tilted her head slightly, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards ever so slightly into a small half-smile, closer to a smirk than anything. It was the first change in her facial expression he'd seen since he'd met her, yet her white eyes still held no visible glimmer of emotion to reflect the change. "It's fun."

She said it like another fact, her voice just slightly lighter than before.

Izuku stared at her before slowly nodding, exhaling quietly. "I... see," he muttered, which was only half-true. Everything about Seiko's demeanor still confused him, but this could work to his advantage. While his apparent amnesic "_episodes_" provided a convenient excuse for his confusion, he didn't want to use it right away. He wanted to get his bearings a bit more, and that would probably be best accomplished if everyone thought he was fine. "So, does that mean you'll help me, or am I on my own?"

Seiko's face smoothed back to its usual blank mask. He wasn't sure if he liked it more or less than the sort-of smile, both were unsettling in their own ways. "I'll tell you what you need to know if and when it becomes relevant. The only rule is that you cannot talk to anyone else about it or mention me," she added a little more lightly. Just a little. Izuku nodded, turning over her words in his head.

"R-right. Okay then. Don't mention the episode, or... you. Got it." He nodded, offering her an uncertain smile. "Thanks, Seiko-chan."

"I suggest you return to your room and review your journals," she told him. "We will speak again later, Izuku." With that she stepped towards the wall and black rippled across her figure, her white eyes seeming to glow before closing as she melded into the shadows. Izuku stiffened as she vanished, staring at the spot she'd occupied.

_Well, I guess I know what her Quirk is,_ he thought distantly as he gulped. Casting a final glance at the door to room seven, he frowned and began the trek to return to his room, double-checking the map in the journal. He should probably read the journals before he ran into anyone else.

(It was only after he'd gotten halfway there that it occurred to him that Seiko had never blinked during their conversation.)

* * *

**Sorry for the slight delay! It was another weird weekend and kind of threw me off. From now on, I'm going to be posting chapters on Mondays instead of Saturday. Mondays are almost always the same for me, so this will guarantee a timely release schedule! It also hopefully gives everyone something to look forward to at the start of the week.**

**On the note of today's chapter, we're introduced to one of my favorite characters of all: Heiwajima Seiko. One of my favorite tropes is apparently the "creepy child" trope, and Seiko fits it to a T. Not in appearance, but just in how she behaves. I can't say much more without some major spoilers, but let's just say her existence has some major connotations for the BNHA universe. I actually drew a quick reference of her, which you can find on my Tumblr, CannibalisticApple, under the tag "Seiko".  
**

**That's all for now, see you next Monday!**


	5. Chapter 5: Familiar Faced Strangers

Chapter 5

.::Familiar Faced Strangers::.

"Ooh, this is actually really cute!"

Mina grinned at her reflection as she stood in front of the mirror, turning to admire herself. After spending about two hours freaking out and then exploring each and every inch of her new apartment, she'd decided to try on some of the clothes in the closet for lack of anything better to do. Her favorite find thus far had to be this off-shoulder white shirt with a flowy, almost frilly asymmetrical bottom, which she paired with red denim shorts and black stockings with large holes ripped in them.

"Punk, but feminine," she decided with a firm nod, mentally giving the outfit her stamp of approval. Clearly, she had good taste here—wherever _here_ was. Mina admittedly still had no idea what was going on and should _probably_ get on that, but she'd already spent about two hours freaking out over it, so she deserved a little break.

With her clothing for the day settled she strolled out of her bedroom and into the main room of the apartment, flopping onto the couch. Stretching her limbs as she positioned herself for optimal comfort, she idly snatched the cell phone from the coffee table next to her and held it above her head. It had taken her two guesses to figure out her password, but now that she had she figured she should probably do some reconnaissance or... something.

...Okay, she could feel the panic returning. Not good.

_Nope._ Mina quickly pressed the power button before the cold bubble of anxiety growing in her stomach could explode, and the phone's screen lit up with a glorious distraction in the form of a photo. The lock screen used a picture of her and some girl she didn't know with their faces smushed together and their eyes crossed, making her laugh lightly as she unlocked the phone. She might not know the story behind it, but it looked silly, and that was good enough for her!

Since waking up she'd gotten no texts or any other alerts like that. She _did_ see a little alert from some mobile game, which she'd already played for over half an hour. It had been surprisingly addicting, solving the puzzles gave her money which she could use to buy clothes and accessories for her avatar. Playing that a bit more wouldn't hurt, right? Having literally nothing better to do (except investigate what was going on, and _nopenopenope not gonna panic_), she decided to do just that and opened the game.

Mina had been playing for fifteen minutes when a knock on the door startled her, nearly dropping her phone as she bolted upright on the couch. Blinking, she stared at the door as the knock repeated, her expression fading to something more uncertain and almost anxious. Just like that, all her earlier uncertainties and anxiety came rushing back, the pink girl biting down on her lip as she tightened her grip on her phone.

At the end of the day, Mina had no idea what was going on or where she was. She had no idea what to expect on the other side of the door, it could be a friend or a heinous villain seeking to attack her in her current confused state. Stomach clenching uncomfortably, she slowly got up and crept towards the door, rising on her toes to peer through the peephole.

A boy with shaggy-looking black hair stood outside, wearing a black button-down shirt with a red collar and trim, and dark red slacks with zippers on the side. The colors almost instantly reminded her of the uniform still hanging in her closet. _Is that the boy's uniform? Does he go to the same school?_ He rocked uncomfortably on his feet, his head bowed so his bangs hid his eyes, allowing her to only glimpse a small sharp-toothed frown that spoke of nerves. Sharp teeth didn't automatically equal villain, right?

Then the boy looked up, and Mina found herself staring at a pair of familiar red eyes. Her brain shut down for approximately 2.5 seconds as she processed the boy's identity, but then it resumed grinding away and gave a name to the face. All her anxieties flew right out the window as she lit up with recognition and she threw the door open with a beaming grin, making the boy jump.

"Kirishima!" she yelled gleefully, flinging herself at him in a tight hug. Kirishima yelped, tensing at the sudden embrace.

"A-Ashido!?" he sputtered, and Mina quickly pulled back, still beaming at him.

"I'm so excited to see you!" she cheered. "Look at you! Your hair's _black_!" She reached out and poked at his head, surprised at how _limp_ his hair was. Kirishima leaned away with a small frown, rubbing his head where she'd poked it.

"Uh, y-yeah...?" he muttered, frowning before quickly shaking his head. "Uh, a-anyways, where were you today?"

"Today?" Mina looked at him blankly, her smile fading and replaced by a look of confusion. "What about today?"

"You... weren't at school?" Kirishima answered, sounding a bit uncertain. It took about four seconds for his words to register, and when they did Mina jolted.

"Wait, you went to _school_ today!?" she blurted, gawking at him in disbelief. The not-redhead frowned, shrugging uncomfortably as he glanced away.

"Well, yeah. I mean, it's a Tuesday, so... Kinda have to." Then he frowned and turned back to her as he hastily added, "Hey, hold on a second, do you think I _skip_!?"

"Not... really." Mina frowned, her earlier exuberance at seeing her classmate quickly fading. Something about Kirishima felt off, and it wasn't just that his hair was black like it had been in middle school. Once again she felt that pit of anxiety growing deep inside her, but this time she didn't try to smother it, looking at him more critically. He seemed... quieter now, way less confident than he'd been at UA. Sort of like how he'd been in middle school.

Was this even the Kirishima she knew?

He shifted uncomfortably under her scrutinizing gaze, grimacing slightly as he quickly averted his eyes. "A-anyways," he continued, "you weren't at school so I thought you might've gotten caught up in that villain attack."

"Villain attack?" Mina's sharp look faded to blank incomprehension once more, before something suddenly clicked. "Oh! You mean that explosion I saw earlier this morning?" In all her confusion over suddenly waking up in Kamino, she'd almost forgotten about the explosion she'd seen at a distant high-rise building. At the very least, there hadn't been any news on it when she checked her phone two minutes later, and after that it kind of slipped her mind.

Kirishima looked visibly relieved by her response, nodding quickly. "Yeah. One of the buildings ended up falling on the monorail tracks by the school, so a bunch of kids couldn't make it. The teachers decided to just call it a day and canceled classes after first period. I didn't see you when I headed down or back, so I... wondered if you got caught up in the explosion on your way there." His voice trailed off towards the end, his expression becoming more somber.

_Oh,_ she thought with a frown. He thought she'd gotten hurt, or worse. No wonder he'd looked so uncomfortable when he'd knocked at her door. That wouldn't do.

Mentally nodding to herself, Mina pasted on a bright smile and threw up her arms. "Well, I'm totally okay!" she declared cheerfully, her loud volume making Kirishima jolt in surprise. "I wasn't anywhere near the explosion! And even if I was, I'm way too awesome to get taken down by something like that!"

"R-right," Kirishima stammered, still looking a bit wide-eyed and off-guard. Taking a breath, he seemed to steel himself and smiled back at her, wide and cocky just like the one he usually sported at UA. "Yeah, you're right. You're way too awesome to get done in by something like that." He paused then, and his smile faded as he looked at her in confusion. "But then... Where _were_ you?"

"Here, of course!" Mina responded, throwing up her arms again to gesture to the apartment. "Where else?"

"Well..." He trailed off, frowning as he seemed to mull over his words. "Uh, Ashido, the explosion happened, like, five minutes before first period was supposed to start."

"And?"

"...And... school's, like, twenty minutes away from here, y'know?" Mina's smile faded again, looking at him blankly once more. Frowning at her silence, Kirishima seemed to hesitate before continuing, "Were... were you planning to skip school today?"

Oh. Well, there was a loaded question if she'd ever heard one. And now, Mina found herself with a dilemma.

At this point, she could tell that this Kirishima was different from the one he knew. He didn't seem as familiar with her as they'd been at UA, and he seemed a lot closer to his middle school self, down to his hair. Ergo, this was probably a different Kirishima who did not go to UA, and thus did not know what was wrong with this whole scenario.

If he had, he'd probably be a blubbering mess right about now. The guy had toughened up since middle school, but some things wouldn't change _that_ easily.

Had she been a more serious or studious sort of person like Iida, she might have made up some excuse about feeling sick. Had she been serious but not _as_ serious and rigid about rules, like Bakugou, she might have said something about her alarm failing to go off that morning and she'd overslept. If she'd been Tsuyu, she probably would be totally blunt about it and try to explain how she might be from another dimension.

As it stood though, Ashido Mina was a mischievous and easygoing person. And so, with a bright grin, she had only one way to answer.

"I woke up and have no idea what's going on!" she announced cheerfully.

And then her smile vanished and she burst into tears, throwing her arms around a startled Kirishima while letting all her earlier fears and anxiety finally burst forth. This might not be _her_ Kirishima, but he was at least familiar, and she needed that now more than ever.

* * *

As several students at UA could now attest, their classes never covered how to deal with waking up in an alternate reality where UA no longer existed and All Might had perished. If such a class _did_ exist, trans-dimensional displacement was probably considered a bit too advanced for first-year students, which still didn't help them one bit.

At least Denki wasn't alone.

He had basically spent the past two hours curled up on Jirou's couch huddled under a blanket, alternating between crying and panicking as he read article after article about how messed up and different this world was. Each new discovery made him feel more and more hysterical and freaked out, and only Jirou's presence kept him from devolving into a total mess.

His wonderful classmate set down a can of Electric Limeade soda on the end table next to him before plopping into the armchair with her own phone. He weakly grabbed the can and popped the tab, sipping at it almost gingerly. The familiar flavor was almost like a salve for his frayed nerves, the tingling along his tongue reminding him this was real, but hey, at least he still had his Quirk. Apparently only people with electricity-based quirks felt that tingle, so if he felt it, he still had it. That was something, right?

"Find anyone else's profiles yet?" Jirou asked, and Denki groaned, his brief spike in positivity quickly plummeting back into the negatives once more.

"Almost everything is set to private," he said mournfully. "Everyone's using fake names, too, like we'd use on the group chats except they use it _everywhere_! Even their FacePages use fake names and anime pictures and stuff for the profile pictures! It's like we went back in time!" Denki himself found all his social media profiles used the name 'Thunderbolt777,' which—what the heck? _Why_ did he need to use a fake name?

"Kinda makes sense though," Jirou muttered as she looked at her phone. "It looks like people with strong Quirks are getting targeted by villains more often. Having your name and face out on the internet for anyone to see would probably just be asking for trouble here. They only have to see you use it once to make a connection, and Class 1-A _definitely_ had some pretty strong Quirks." After a beat, she added, "Except for Mineta. Don't think he'd be targeted."

"Speaking of Mineta, he's, like, the only one I _can_ find," Denki muttered sullenly, staring balefully at the grape-haired boy's profile. "Should I send him a message?" Jirou paused, raising her head and arching an eyebrow at him.

"_No,_" she said flatly, and went back to looking at her phone. Denki sighed and exited out of Mineta's profile, silently conceding it would probably be for the best. Don't get him wrong, he liked Mineta, but the dude didn't do too well under extreme pressure. And this? This was more pressure than they'd ever faced before. Denki was already freaking out enough, they'd probably just feed off each other and make it worse.

Besides, the guy had posted a photo of himself (face blacked out) at some school in Tokyo about an hour ago. He made no mention of waking up in another dimension or anything else of that nature, just commented, '_Totally gonna ace that test today! Get ready to pay up worstjeanist555!_' so he _probably_ wasn't affected like they were.

Which brought up another problem Denki didn't want to face. If Mineta wasn't caught up in this, then who else might not be involved? Were he and Jirou the only ones _actually_ here in this weird alternate reality?

The thought made him want to hyperventilate, his throat closing up as he stared at his phone with tears pricking the corner of his eyes. If it was just the two of them, could they even _do_ anything? He and Jirou made a pretty good team in training, sure, but this was way beyond anything they'd faced before!

_Ding._ He startled as Jirou's phone suddenly buzzed with a text, the girl sitting a bit straighter as her eyes narrowed at the screen. "That's..." She trailed off, her lips pursing in a frown. "Yaomomo?"

Denki practically jumped off the couch at the name, darting to her side. "Yaomomo?" he repeated excitedly as he peered over her shoulder. Sure enough, the name Yaoyorozu Momo headed a text conversation on the screen, and he almost jumped with glee at the sight. "You have Yaomomo in your phone! _Sweet!_"

Yaoyorozu was smart—way smarter than him—and she could keep her cool pretty well. She was voted the Assistant Class Rep for a reason, even if it was just that two or three people thought that way about her back then. She'd definitely earned her title since then though. Already he felt a surge of relief at knowing she was there.

"Not sweet," Jirou said, cutting through his joy once more. She had a small frown on her face, her eyebrows furrowing as she read over the texts. "She's just asking where I am."

"Where you are?" Dread settled over him at her tone, and Denki leaned further over her shoulder to actually _read_ the latest text.

'_Where are you? Are you sick today? Do you need me to bring today's notes?_'

The phrasing didn't give Denki much hope, shooting a nervous glance at Jirou. "Maybe she's just trying to gauge your reaction...?" he suggested, but it sounded uncertain even to his own ears.

"Maybe," Jirou muttered doubtfully as he watched her tap out a quick reply. '_Just under the weather. Sorry to worry you. I'll be fine, don't need to stop by. Thanks tho_'

Within a minute Yaoyorozu responded: '_Are you sure? It won't be a problem, my chauffer won't mind going a little out of the way for you Kyo._'

That reply told them almost everything they needed to know: _she didn't remember._ Even Denki could tell there was no obscure, hidden meaning to be found by reading between the lines. But more importantly:

"Since when does Yaomomo call you Kyo?" he blurted before he could stop himself. Jirou just stared at the phone blankly, clearly just as surprised as him.

"...We might need to go to your place instead," she finally said.

* * *

The journals seemed to be just as much of a lifeline as Izuku had hoped.

He only skimmed the first few, figuring he should focus on the most recent one first, but he planned to read them all eventually to try to get his bearings. The oldest one dated back about three years, the earliest entries overly verbose and wordy with some spanning multiple pages. By the fourth one he seemed to have trimmed down on a lot of stuff, the events of each day concisely catalogued in at least a paragraph with exceptions for particularly eventful days.

The most recent entries all neatly fit into the "exception" category. Every day for the past week he had filled multiple pages describing Bakugou's sudden capture by the Alliance. Apparently it had been a surprise for everyone involved, the Alliance not knowing about his connection to Izuku until they met, when Bakugou turned white as a ghost upon seeing him. It seemed he thought Izuku had died, which... yeah.

So it wasn't too surprising that after getting over his shock Bakugou reverted to his typical explosive personality and began cursing out Izuku with every name he could think of. Izuku cringed as he read about how Shigaraki had not taken well to the nickname "Deku," nor did he appreciate the threats. It had taken a joint effort with Kurogiri and Magne to stop their leader from killing Bakugou over his expletive-laden threats to blow up Izuku where he stood.

On the bright side, the plans had changed from "_force Bakugou to join the Alliance and make him a potential suicide bomber if that fails_" to "_make Bakugou Izuku's full-time bodyguard and companion_" instead. Which meant Izuku got to visit him every day to get his old friend used to the idea that he was actually, you know, _still alive_ this entire time. Though judging by his brief visit today, that wasn't going too well.

Just reading the entries, Izuku found himself cringing at how awkward and uncomfortable the situation was. Bakugou clearly viewed him as an enemy and traitor (and Izuku did not blame him), and had yet to calm down enough to listen to Izuku's explanation about how he got into this mess. That would be even more difficult to achieve now, since Izuku no longer remembered (and never would, since _these weren't his memories_) how his counterpart got adopted by the Alliance.

On that note, "adoption" was the only word he could think of to really describe his situation based on what he'd been able to glean from his writings so far. If he'd been working with the Alliance in any capacity the letter or journals would have referenced that. At the very least, Izuku certainly would if he was in a situation where he suffered from random amnesic episodes while expected to work with someone, hero _or_ villain. He didn't see any reason an alternate version of him would omit a detail _that_ important.

So, yeah. He hopefully hadn't done anything _too_ illegal... a thought which made him almost want to cry. He settled for a long moan instead, letting his head plop onto the desk as he wallowed in misery. No way he hadn't been roped into _something_ illegal during his time with the Alliance. His presence alone probably qualified him as an accessory to all sorts of unspeakable deeds, much to his dismay.

A knock on the door jolted him from his sulking and he bolted upright and spun around just as it opened. His heart caught in his throat as an all-too familiar head of messy pale blue hair poked in the door, red eyes almost seeming to glow beneath his bangs. "Izu?" Shigaraki greeted quietly. "Are you feeling better yet?"

_Absolutely not!_ Izuku screamed inside his head, and it took everything in him to not shout it _outside_ his mind too. Every instinct screamed at him to run from the presence of the sinister leader of the League of Villains and All Might's self-proclaimed greatest enemy, his mere presence ringing all sorts of alarms in his head.

Somehow, though, he managed to keep relatively calm and swallowed, forcing a wobbly smile. "Uh, my head's s-still a bit fuzzy, S—uh, T-Tomura...nii." The overly familiar title felt heavy on his tongue, a small chill pricking at spine as he hoped the letter hadn't been wrong about their relationship. Fortunately Shigaraki didn't seem perturbed by it, even as he frowned slightly.

"I see," he mumbled. "Then, do you want to watch some movies?"

"Movies?" Izuku squeaked.

"It's been a while," Shigaraki mused. "I have nothing to do today, and Toga got a bunch of new ones last time she went out with Aiko. What do you say?" As he spoke his mouth quirked upwards into a smile, a creepy-looking thing that tugged on the scar by his lip and had a lot more teeth than Izuku found comfortable. Yet even as he suppressed a shudder he couldn't help but note the expression felt oddly, impossibly... _genuine_? Or at least, not fake or overly malicious?

_This was so weird._

"Y-you don't have to," he croaked out. "I—I'll be fine on my own."

"I just said, I have nothing to do today," Shigaraki deflected casually. "I'll get Kurogiri to make you some soup or something. Be back soon." With another flash of the... _smile_, he withdrew his head and closed the door, leaving Izuku sitting in stunned silence. The green-haired boy slowly slumped in his chair, sinking lower and lower until his back laid against the seat and he stared at the ceiling blankly.

Well, looks like he had a movie date with Shigaraki. All Might kill him now.

_Please let this be a bad dream,_ he prayed silently.

* * *

The next morning Uraraka Ochaco opened her eyes to a still-unfamiliar ceiling, along with the sound of her phone's alarm going off.

"Ochaco, breakfast!" her mother called from elsewhere in the house. Ochaco pulled a pillow over her face and whined in frustration. Not a dream then. _Crap._

* * *

****Fun fact: I have a little list in my scraps file keeping track of all the days in this fic. Their stay isn't going to be just one week, and since at least one student is _actually in school in this world,_ I kind of need to keep track of the days. I totally forgot that Day 1 was a Tuesday instead of a Monday until editing this chapter though. So yeah, hopefully I'll manage to keep all the days in order!  
****

**With this chapter, I want to confirm once and for all that not all of Class 1-A got transported to this dimension. For those who don't know (minor spoiler for the Overhaul arc), Kirishima and Ashido went to the same middle school. Also, Kirishima's hair was originally black and he had some pretty bad confidence issues. As you can see, he did not get inspired to fix them in this world. Also, Yaoyorozu and Jirou are friends in this world! That should be interesting.  
**

**Next time, some more world building!**


	6. Chapter 6: Three Days Later

Chapter 6

.::Three Days Later::.

Ochaco liked to think she was pretty smart. Not like a genius or anything, but a little smarter than the average girl. She at least knew enough to get along in life on her own, and make quick connections and decisions during class. For that reason, it didn't take her long to figure out she somehow ended up in an alternate dimension, and after that she somehow managed to keep her cool long enough to not freak out her parents.

In the three days since first waking up in this weird alternate timeline, she had noted a few major differences:

~_1\. All Might is dead.~_

That was the biggest one, and possibly the biggest shock. She had been grateful she'd been in her room alone to process that one, she didn't want to explain to her mom why she had a sudden breakdown while looking at a years-old article on her phone. From there, it seemed everything else sort of spiraled out of control, society-wise anyway. Hence the next point:

_~2. The world is a lot more violent.~ _

Losing the Symbol of Peace in such a violent and sudden fashion led to a much messier situation than their world, apparently. Crime had become much more active than before, and being a Pro Hero was more dangerous than ever, with even their families getting targeted. Apparently kids with strong Quirks also got targeted, since villains liked to recruit them by kidnapping them. So, yeah. It wasn't dystopia-levels yet, but daily life kinda sucked.

_ ~3. UA closed, way back in her first year of middle school.~_

That had been another shock, and actually the _first_ one since she'd searched up her high school before All Might. It had been kind of what led her to discover All Might's death, actually. One of the articles about its closure had mentioned the massacre at UA as "_the latest tragedy in a string of societal upheavals after All Might's tragic demise._" But otherwise, yeah, UA didn't exist anymore, which meant she wasn't a student there. Not that she would be anyway, because...

_~4. Ochaco stopped going to school after graduating middle school.~_

Weirdly enough, that had been one of the less surprising discoveries, because it had actually been her backup plan if she didn't get into UA. Ochaco had applied to UA and literally no where else, mindful of the high tuitions of other hero schools if she couldn't get in on a scholarship. Japan allowed students to end their education after middle school, giving them the option to get a job instead. Which led her to point five:

_~5. Ochaco now works for her family's construction company.~_

That had been the main component of her backup plan if she failed the entrance exam at UA. Her Quirk was perfectly suited for construction, and it would save her dad _so much money_. Absolutely no surprise she'd done just that in a world without UA (or any hero school really) as an option.

But that led to one final point that _did_ surprise her:

_ ~6. Her family is RICH.~_

Not rolling-in-money-level rich, but still _much_ more comfortable than her own world. Ochaco had been stunned to realize they lived in a nice two-story house in Musutafu, which had apparently become something like a second Tokyo after the _actual_ Tokyo got mostly destroyed by one spectacular fight between Endeavor and some villain she'd never heard of. (Which, _yikes._ That was a mess to read about. Thank goodness for evacuation teams and rescue heroes!)

She quickly traced the cause for this particular change to Change Number 1: _All Might died, and so crime rose._ A rise in crime meant a lot more property damage from villain attacks, and a rise in property damage meant a lot more work for construction companies.

Now, normally, Uraraka Construction didn't have any particular advantages over city-based companies. If anything, they would be at a _disadvantage_ due to a lack of reputation in more urban areas. In the past their best tool had been low prices compared to competition and building a strong rapport with the few customers they _did_ have, which allowed her family to just barely scrape by.

However, in this world her family had a major advantage over the competition: Ochaco's Quirk.

The fact was, setting up heavy construction equipment took time and money. Sometimes just getting that equipment on-site took extra time due to damage to surrounding roads. Ochaco, with her anti-gravity Quirk, minimized the need for the equipment _at all_, able to make large debris and heavy steel beams essentially weightless with a quick slap to the side.

Her family still used the machinery of course, it's not like she served as a full-time replacement. But Ochaco made the initial steps _much_ faster since she could fit into a lot of places that bulky equipment couldn't. Plus she could start clearing rubble before the machinery arrived, which saved a lot of time since they didn't need to worry about clearing a path for the cranes and stuff.

In short, in a world where property damage was now an almost daily occurrence due to a sharp rise in destructive crime, Ochaco had single-handedly become the most valuable asset a construction company could desire.

For that very reason, her role was a _bit_ of a guarded secret. People knew her father's company worked fast, but not _why_. That traced back to Change 2: the world was more violent, and some villain groups liked to recruit by kidnapping kids with useful Quirks. Ochaco's Quirk and now-wealthy family would make her at the very least a valuable target for ransom. So if Ochaco's role in her family's newfound fortune was to be discovered, she could guarantee a long string of kidnapping attempts.

That said, adults seemed to be safe (or, _safer_, at least) from such targeted recruitment and ransom attempts. So as far as their clients knew, they just had a team with a _very_ useful combination of Quirks on hand. Which was true enough. Her dad had carefully screened and hired several workers who had Quirks that would be explicitly useful to their business, as well as keeping on his most trusted workers from her early childhood. The team in this world had been largely set in stone for at least five years now, with one or two additions over the years.

So, how did Ochaco fit into the team from a public standpoint? Simple: her dad wanted her to take over the business, so he had her join him on-site to get real-world management experience. He also played up the "might be kidnapped for ransom" concern (which was _totally valid_, by the way, and _kind of really freaked her out_) to make his protectiveness over her seem more legitimate to outsiders and minimize suspicion.

Of course, since her role was so secret, she couldn't be _constantly_ on the site helping out. Instead, she found herself helping for a couple of hours scattered throughout the day, and then shoved into her dad's on-site office for the remainder of the time. Which brought her to a final point—not necessarily a Big Change, but still a noteworthy detail all the same:

_~7. She might not be in high school, but she still had a full-time private tutor.~_

And that one was totally okay by her.

"Finished!" she chirped as she set down her pencil next to the worksheet, taking a moment to stretch her arms above her head. Across the room Suimin-sensei glanced up from her book with a look of faint surprise before smiling warmly.

"Already?" she asked, getting up to walk over. "I know you're smart, but that was still faster than expected, Ochaco-chan."

"Yeah, I guess it kinda just... clicked," Ochaco replied, laughing sheepishly. In reality, they had already gone over this particular topic in class at UA so it felt more like a review than anything new, but she couldn't tell Suimin-sensei that. The dark-haired woman hummed as she collected the paper, skimming over the answers.

"It looks mostly right, but you got a few wrong," she said, setting it back on the table. Ochaco's smile faded to a look of intense concentration, nodding sharply as they began going over it together.

It had only been three days, but so far Ochaco liked Suimin-sensei. The woman was kind and intelligent, clearly experienced in teaching, but she was also so _friendly_. She felt almost like an older sister or aunt instead of a teacher, always willing to talk to Ochaco about anything and everything. She even promised to take Ochaco out clothes shopping sometime, she couldn't imagine any of her other teachers doing that.

_Yeah,_ Ochaco thought as Suimin-sensei pushed up her glasses while pointing out one answer, _I definitely like her._ But even so, that didn't mean she liked the situation.

No matter how much she liked the people, this world still wasn't the one Ochaco knew. She had no idea how to get home, but she had no intentions of staying here forever.

She just wished she knew where to even begin.

* * *

"I made lunch!"

Those were the cheery words that accompanied Toga's entrance as she burst through the back door of the bar, a cheery-looking smile on her face as she lofted a large pot for all to see.

Izuku nearly fell off his stool at her abrupt entrance, while Shigaraki's fingers twitched and accidentally touched the glass he'd been holding, causing it to dissolve. The villain scowled as he turned to look at her, annoyance clear on his face as another villain rushed to clean up the spilled drink.

"What now," he questioned crisply. Toga bounced over to them with a smile, Izuku scrambling to move his books and empty glass of apple juice out of the way as she plopped the pot on the counter.

"I had the kitchen to myself so I made stuff!" she told him as she lifted the lid. Izuku, who happened to be closest, craned his neck to peer into the pot and winced at the unidentifiable muck inside. Chunks that _might_ be meat floated in the... well, he was just going to call it "_broth_" because he didn't know what else to call the chunky, sludge-like substance. He couldn't even name the color, it looked like a cross between brown, red and green, which he didn't know was possible until that moment.

"Ooh, Toga made something?" Twice piped up behind him. "That's so nice! I wouldn't touch anything she makes with a ten foot pole!"

"Eh, I'm sure it's not _that_ bad," Magne interjected lazily, strolling over to look at the meal. "It's not like she'd poison us, right?"

"Poison is lame," Toga confirmed. "Plus that's Aiko-nee's thing, not mine. I _way_ prefer cutting people up." If anyone noticed Izuku scoot away a little at that, they didn't comment on it.

"What _is_ that?" Shigaraki murmured warily, leaning over to peer at the pot suspiciously.

"I dunno," Toga replied with a shrug, a lazy-looking smile stretched across her face. "I just grabbed random stuff in the fridge and threw it in a pot!"

"Which fridge?" Kurogiri asked, joining them on the other side of the counter with a bottle of apple juice. He swept up Izuku's glass and refilled it with a practiced grace, setting it back down in front of the boy without ever looking away from Toga. "We have multiple refrigerators, and I do not recognize these ingredients."

"The white one in the cellar," Toga replied with another shrug.

"...There's a fridge in the cellar?" someone muttered lowly behind Izuku. That was enough for him to figure out the food was bad news (not like its appearance hadn't already been clue enough).

"I believe any food down there would be well past its expiration date," Kurogiri noted, confirming Izuku's suspicions.

"I am not touching that," Shigaraki deadpanned, pointedly turning away from the pot. Izuku felt a jab on his shoulder, nearly falling off the stool in surprise as he turned to see the teen with the poisonous gas Quirk—Mustard, right?—standing behind him, his gas mask absent to reveal a mischievous grin.

"Izuku, I dare you to try it!" he prodded, his eyes almost seeming to sparkle with mischief. Izuku gaped at him in disbelief, an involuntary shudder running down his spine. At that point he felt two hands lay on his shoulders—one finger pointedly hovering just short of contact on each hand—and spin him to face away from the other boy. He turned his head to see Shigaraki looming next to him, staring at Mustard with a flat look.

"He's forbidden to touch it too," he declared flatly. Mustard pouted and grumbled under his breath about him being a 'killjoy' as he turned away, but didn't try to argue. As Shigaraki's hands lifted it took all of Izuku's control not to visibly relax, instead quickly downing the rest of his apple juice and getting up.

"I was gonna head back to my room anyway," he said, surprised his voice didn't come out more strained as he hastily gathered his books. "This one channel's been airing old interviews with Silver Age Heroes during the day lately, and I want to check it out. I think today's got one with Crimson Riot."

"Aww, just like Mido-chan," Toga crooned with a grin. "Always trying to learn more about Quirks, even old dead people!" She leaned over to ruffle his hair affectionately and Izuku flinched and pulled away, smiling tightly as he tried to fix it.

"I don't see the point," Twice remarked. "They're all dead anyway, right? Not like you'd get anything valuable." Izuku waited for him to continue, but it seemed to be one of the rare times the duplicating villain didn't contradict himself, which. He didn't know if that was a _good_ or _bad_ thing, or just part of his usual eccentricities.

"Tch, as long as it's not All Might," Shigaraki grumbled under his breath, scowling lightly as he grabbed the glass Kurogiri just filled for him. Once again Izuku had to restrain the instinctive wince at the obvious displeasure in his expression; it was hard to act "natural" around the man when his mere presence gave him distinct flashbacks to a myriad of horrible situations. He _really_ didn't want to anger Shigaraki.

"There are leftovers in the private kitchen," Kurogiri offered. "You can help yourself to them."

"Thanks, Kurogiri," he replied with a feeble smile as he circled the counter to the back door, and as an afterthought added, "Enjoy Toga's... uh, mystery meal."

His comment elicited a delight cackle from the girl in question, while several of the other villains groaned lowly. Izuku quickly scurried through the door before the fallout could begin, sighing quietly as he walked down the hallways.

Somehow, Izuku had reached his fourth day surrounded by enemies in an alternate universe without freaking out or raising suspicion. In this world the League had a different roster than the one he knew. Dabi seemed to be absent, as was Spinner, but their spaces had been more than compensated by a host of new faces like Seiko or Aiko, who... he still hadn't actually met yet—or even found in his journals—but her name came up pretty often in conversation. If it weren't for the journals and analysis books, he wouldn't have been able to identify most of these people.

Disconcertingly enough though, a few of them he _did_ recognize... as sidekicks and more recently debuted Heroes from his own world.

In any event, fortunately Izuku didn't have to interact with them directly too often. Much of his days were spent in the bar, reading his oldest journals or playing a portable game console Shigaraki gave him while the Villains went about their business. Few of them bothered him directly besides Shigaraki and Kurogiri, instead treating him more like part of the scenery rather than a living person as they discussed their plans.

It almost felt like a dream, surreal and impossible in so many ways. He still couldn't wrap his mind around the genuine _affection_ Shigaraki showed him. It was subtle, hidden beneath a lot of deadpan and game analogies, but it was there. It was clear in how relaxed and casual he acted with Izuku, casually offering permission to play his game consoles—which he'd quickly realized were normally off-limits to other people—and the occasional teasing comment about his journals.

The more time Izuku spent with him, the more confused he got by their relationship. Despite his original doubts, it seemed he really _wasn't_ a tool to Shigaraki by any means. He would shoo Izuku away if "business talk" came up in the bar, and would steer attention away if people focused on him too much. The man didn't even care about his Quirk Analysis notes and how it could be used to work against Heroes, though he obviously knew about them based on his snide remarks about Izuku's continued hero worship habits.

It honestly baffled Izuku. He couldn't figure out _why_ Shigaraki cared about him so much, other than just long-term familiarity. But what would even spawn such a relationship in the first place was beyond him. All he had was a vague hint in the letter that he'd been picked up by the Alliance for a reason, but he had no idea what said reason could be—and at this point, he wasn't sure if he _wanted_ to know anymore.

Just thinking about it made him feel frustrated, biting his lip and shaking his head as he shoved it away. Right now he had better things to do. He hadn't lied about the old interviews with Silver Age Heroes, but he'd already set it to record to watch later. Instead, when he reached a split in the hall he turned down the opposite one from his room. After three days he'd gotten a good idea of the building's layout, and it took him little time to reach Room 7.

Taking a deep breath, he braced himself and knocked on the door, the metal reverberating under his fist before he slid the small slat open just an inch. "Kacchan, it's me," he called. "Can I come in?"

There was a moment of silence, and then, "Just fucking open it, Deku. Not like I can stop you." Izuku's stomach both twisted and settled at the response, and he braced himself before opening the door, finding Bakugou glowering at him from the bed.

Somehow, this was the most nerve-wracking part of his new routine. Seeing his old childhood friend filled him with a rush of much-needed familiarity and security, even his bitter scowl feeling normal, but the tension in the room was much worse than it had _ever_ been in his world. He smiled feebly at Bakugou nonetheless, letting the door close behind him as he pulled his phone from his pocket.

"I found some more cool videos online," he said. "Do you want to watch one?" Bakugou scoffed and glanced away, his gaze dark and irritable.

"Whatever," he grumbled. "Not like I have anything better to do in this fucking shithole." The words had a little less heat to them than he usually heard from the blond, making Izuku's heart sink just a little, but at the same time it was so like him that it was reassuring. Izuku took the invitation to scurry over and sit on the cot next to him, holding the phone in his lap so they could both see.

It was a bit uncomfortable and endlessly awkward to sit with Bakugou when the other boy clearly detested him so much, but it's not like that was anything _new_. It was sort of like back in middle school, if you took away the grudging tolerance on Bakugou's end and the bulky handcuffs covering his hands to block him from using his Quirk. It sucked, but it wasn't _completely_ unfamiliar territory.

Still, Izuku hoped neither of them would have to put up with this much longer. For now he just queued up the video, hoping that maybe he could get his old friend to speak a little more today compared to yesterday. He wouldn't be able to devise a solid plan of action just yet—he had no where near enough information to figure out _anything_—but he figured getting Bakugou to agree to become his "bodyguard" would be a good first step.

* * *

_Bzz. Bzz._

Shouto stared down at the phone as it vibrated in his palm, the screen lit up with only the letter "D" for a name. Mouth thinning, he waited for it to stop buzzing before hitting the power button, dimming the screen and slipping it into his jacket's pocket as he stepped out of the alley. He breathed out a quiet sigh as he joined the crowds walking down the sidewalk, hands stuffed in his pockets and his head held low.

_Act natural,_ he silently commanded himself as he fell into step with the other pedestrians. He had his hood up and a scarf pulled over his face, the normally shady look thankfully going unquestioned thanks to the mid-November chill. Less easy to explain was his eye patch, used to cover the eye with the scar, but hopefully if he kept his head down no one would really notice. If someone questioned him about it or—worse yet—recognized him, he wasn't sure what he'd do.

In the days since waking up in an abandoned building with _Dabi_ of all people, he had slowly come to the realization that this world didn't fit with the one he knew. The first sign had been when he saw a group of police officers use their Quirks to apprehend a purse thief. He'd been stunned by the blatant abuse of their Quirks despite _clearly_ not being Pro Heroes, but no one else even batted an eye.

From there, Shouto had noted a lot of other inconsistencies that all led to one conclusion: this world wasn't his.

Coming to grips with that fact had been difficult. As the son of Endeavor, he had been taught to prepare for all sorts of situations and disasters, but he'd still never accounted for something like _this_. His best guess was that he somehow ended up in an alternate universe, or had been trapped in an illusion of some sort. Whatever happened, the main point was that everything was _different_.

He'd given up on going to heroes for help a while back. How could he even begin to explain his problem when _he_ didn't even know what was going on? It wasn't like he'd be able to find one anyway. Shouto still hadn't really figured out what city he was in, but he'd quickly determined that it had no public hero agency. When he'd tried asking people about one he'd only received blank looks or queries about if he felt alright.

As best as he could gather, public hero agencies simply didn't exist the way he was used to, even though he still saw heroes on TVs in store windows. Yet another sign something was wrong with this world.

Unfortunately, Shouto didn't have many options to find out what _else_ might be different though. It wasn't like he could just go on his computer or turn on the news. Right now he was essentially homeless, spending his nights sleeping in abandoned buildings or alleyways, and his days just wandering the streets. Going back to his house never even crossed his mind. His father could be stubborn at the best of times, and he didn't want to deal with his reaction to Shouto showing up with no knowledge of, well, _anything_.

As it stood, his only window into this world was the cell phone, which he still hadn't unlocked yet. Usually he kept it off to conserve the battery since he didn't exactly have regular access to an outlet for the charger, but whenever he _did_ turn it on he'd receive at least one or two calls from "D" each hour. It didn't take much thought to figure out who "D" was. Why Dabi kept calling him, Shouto had no idea, and he wasn't sure he _wanted_ to know.

In any event, he needed to do some research. He'd spent the past three days scrounging up money from wherever he could—searching for leftover change in vending machines, offering to help people carry stuff to their cars and houses, even asking passing pedestrians for any spare yen. He'd finally saved up about two thousand yen, which should be enough to rent a spot in an internet café for a few hours. He intended to use every minute of that time to learn as much information as possible.

As he walked down a busy street lined with stores towards the nearest one he could remember, a TV caught his eye and he paused upon noticing it displaying the weather forecast. He couldn't hear the audio, but he grimaced as he saw a dark cloud with lightning appear in the background below a moon icon. Thunderstorms had to be the _worst_ type of weather he could encounter right now, and it looked like they'd be in for a nasty one that night.

Mulling over his options, he turned around and began walking the other direction. It was barely noon and the sky was clear, so he might as well wait until evening so he could rent the booth and stay dry. Until then, he'd just try to gather more money in hopes he could find enough to sleep there. He smirked as he imagined how his father would react to him, the prodigal son, sleeping in an internet café like a homeless runaway.

_That's probably what's _actually_ happening though, _he mused to himself. Shouto suspected he'd had a reason for dying his hair black and carrying around all the components for a quick disguise.

His musings soon ended when someone suddenly shouted something and people immediately surged past him, their voices blurring together as they chattered excitedly. "Sorry!" a girl called as she bumped his shoulder, not bothering to stop as she kept running. Twisting to glance over his shoulder, he noticed a small crowd had gathered beneath a rather large monitor mounted outside a bar, the screen showing what looked to be an ordinary office building with "BREAKING" displayed beneath it. Shouto frowned, confused by the scene and the excitement in the small group.

Then one of the windows near the top flew open and a figure in a tailored black suit flew out, leaping through the sky as if skipping.

Several of the girls in the crowd shrieked as the camera panned over to the man as he made his escape, making Shouto wince and quickly cover his ears. Even so he could clearly hear their cries of "_GENTLE!_" and "_SO COOL!_" He grimaced as the shrieks continued, trying to ignore them as he squinted up at the monitor. A hero he didn't recognize appeared on screen trying to chase the man, awkwardly bouncing through the air along the path the villain had run.

But at one point the hero's foot plummeted and he fell, making Shouto suck in a sharp breath and the crowd go silent as the camera followed his descent. From that height the fall would almost certainly be fatal. Before he could fall very far though a surge of black energy suddenly swooped beneath him to break his descent, making Shouto freeze and the girls shriek somehow even _louder_.

A cloaked figure swung into the camera's line of sight, one gloved hand clutching a rope as the dark energy rippled from beneath the cloak's hem. The newcomer used their free hand to grab the hero's wrist, jerking him out of the darkness and tossing him to the ground. Still made for a painful landing, but at least the fall was considerably shorter than before.

The shadows withdrew into the cloak as the rope swiftly jerked upwards, yanking the newcomer towards the original suited man. The camera moved to show the rope had come from a device on his wrist, using his free hand to tug on the cable to pull it back. Once the cloaked figure got close enough he grabbed them and pulled them to his side, retrieving the other end of the rope and holding it close. The pair turned and fled together, leaping away through the air.

As they disappeared into the distance the camera shifted to show a news reporter, their voice inaudible over the cheering girls in the crowd. It hardly mattered though, Shouto's mind focused on the last particular figure to enter the scene.

_That was Dark Shadow._

Tokoyami Fumikage's Quirk was one of the most distinct ones in the class. Even before Shouto had started opening up to his classmates, it had stood out to him as one of the most powerful in 1A. As he stared at the screen the ticker bar changed to show "_GENTLE CRIMINAL AND PHANTOM SHADOW STRIKE AGAIN!_" Phantom Shadow? It seemed melodramatic enough for Tokoyami's tastes.

Either way, he had a name—two names, now: Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow.

As Shouto stared at the screen he felt the phone suddenly buzz, vibrating softly with an incoming call. His fists clenched at his sides, turning away from the monitor and striding down the street with a renewed sense of purpose.

* * *

**So minor spoilers for the manga, there's a villain named Gentle Criminal who appears after the Overhaul arc. I won't give many major spoilers on him and how his arc goes (chances are this fic won't even make it to his first in-person appearance before he debuts in the anime). All you need to know for now is that he likes to record and post videos of his crimes exposing "injustices" in the world. Although in this world, he's a bit more famous and extravagant with his targets...**

**Question: now that you've seen Tokoyami, where do you guys think the other members of Class 1-A are?  
**


	7. Chapter 7: Some New Old Friends

Chapter 7

.::Some New Old Friends::.

"Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow?"

Mina blinked as she slurped up her ramen noodles, making Kumiko snicker even as she shook a finger at her. "Don't eat with your mouth full, Mina-chan!" her old friend scolded, but the edge was lost in the face of her amused smirk. Still, Mina dutifully swallowed the mouthful of noodles and dropped her chopsticks before speaking.

"Who're they?" she asked.

"Wow, you really _do_ have amnesia, don't you?" Anjou drawled next to her, arching an eyebrow as she tapped away on her cell phone.

"Yeah, that's what I said!" Mina huffed, pouting at her. "Did you think I was lying about that?"

"Nah. You're not smart enough for that." Anjou shrugged even as Mina squawked with offense at the remark, while Kumiko just laughed. Mina pouted and crossed her arms with a huff, pointedly looking away from the smug girl next to her.

For lack of any better ideas, Mina had ultimately decided to just go to school and tell everyone she had a sudden case of partial amnesia. Convincing the teachers had been easy enough since she honestly didn't know their names or where the classes were, and from there her friends had picked up the slack. Kumiko had been her best friend back in middle school so she was familiar, but Anjou was totally new to her. She was a lot more deadpan and snarky than anyone else she knew, and so far Mina liked that about her.

Adjusting to a totally new school mid-year was weird, but between them and Kirishima, Mina figured she'd probably be fine. Speaking of Kirishima, Mina perked up as she noticed an increasingly-familiar head of shaggy black hair towards the side of the cafeteria, practically jumping to her feet and waving eagerly. "Kirishima!" she shouted, several nearby people flinching at her volume. The target of her yells winced and nearly dropped his tray, shooting her a startled look, and Mina just grinned and waved her arms. "Over here!"

Kirishima seemed to shrink in on himself as several pairs of eyes moved his way, his head ducking as he quickly hurried over. "D-don't just call me like that!" he hissed, slipping into the seat next to Kumiko almost hesitantly. "Everyone was staring!"

"But if I didn't call you, how would I know where I was?" Mina retorted with a roll of her eyes. Kirishima frowned but didn't bother arguing, so she counted it as a victory.

In a lucky coincidence for her, Kirishima not only happened to go to the same high school in Kamino, but _also_ moved into the same apartment building, hence why he'd visited her that first day. Between that and already knowing each other in middle school, Mina had a multitude of excuses for latching onto him in her current state of "confusion," and she had no intentions of wasting the opportunity.

In the three days she'd gotten to know him she had found so many differences from her Kirishima. This guy had only bits and pieces of the high confidence he had in UA, he doubted himself so much! It boggled her mind how much he'd changed. They hadn't talked much in middle school, but _still_, she didn't think he'd been _this_ bad. She had made it her self-proclaimed goal to fix that as soon as possible, because if she was going to get through this mess, she'd need a plucky sidekick to help her out!

...Also, she _might_ want to learn some embarrassing secrets to tease him with after she got home. Hero student or not, Mina was a mischief-maker at heart.

"Anyways," Anjou said, drawing everyone's attention, "Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow are a pair of popular phantom thieves." She held her phone to the side so Mina could see. The screen showed a man in a costume resembling a fine suit sitting in a nicely decorated room holding a cup of tea, and a cloaked figure lurking in the shadows behind him.

"Huh, that suit-guy's kinda familiar," she said. Kumiko gave an overly dramatic gasp, her hands fluttering over her heart as she grinned.

"I knew it!" she cried gleefully. "I _knew_ you'd remember Gentle-sama!"

"Gentle-_sama_?" Mina blinked, surprised by Kumiko's excitement. "Wait, hold on, isn't this guy, like, a thief? He's totally a villain, why are you so excited over him!?"

"He's a _chivalrous_ thief," Kumiko corrected pointedly. "He only steals from deplorable companies that lie to the public and exposes their corruption for all to see. He and Phantom are practically vigilantes!"

"Yeah, _villain_-themed vigilantes," Kirishima snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'm with Ashido on this one, the fangirls are kinda creepy. Plus the guy looks like he's, like, forty."

"Phantom Shadow's probably younger," Anjou pointed out, pulling her phone back. "No one really knows though, not like anyone's ever seen his face. He mostly just lurks in the background as support. You should see the fan art, lots of interesting speculation."

"He has fan art?" Kirishima asked slowly, and flinched when Kumiko suddenly sparkled. _Literally._ Her Quirk had been half the reason Mina became friends with her in the first place.

"_Yesss!_" she hissed gleefully, an almost demented grin on her face as her phone suddenly appeared in her hand. "So much fan art! There are so many different theories! Like, in this one he's a beautiful black-haired boy whose face is so beautiful everyone falls in love instantly! And in this one, he's just a shadow, but like, with a physical form!" She shoved the phone in Kirishima's face as she rambled on, the black-haired boy leaning back with a panicked look.

As her excited rambling continued he shot Mina a desperate look, wordlessly pleading for help, to which she just innocently looked away. _Sorry Kirishima,_ she apologized silently. She had learned long ago that there was no way to stop Kumiko when she got excited, not unless you joined in and out-talked her. This would just be another stepping stone for him to toughen up again.

While her best friend assaulted Kirishima with information she turned her attention to Anjou. "So they seriously have a fan following?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, guess people like seeing a villain that's not malicious," Anjou replied with a shrug, not looking up from her phone as she continued tapping away. "It's not like they go out of their way to hurt people or steal anything _big_. Last time they stole some CEO's trophy from their college days."

"Huh? A trophy?" Mina blurted. "But that's so _weird_! Like, I have three back at home just from participating in sports and stuff! Why not something valuable like—like, diamonds, or rubies, or gold, or, or—I don't know, a boat or plane?"

"They do it more for show than anything, always make a big scene," Anjou said with another shrug. "But after their thefts they upload a video with a _bunch_ of evidence about corruption in the company that leads to a bunch of arrests and scandals. That's probably why Gentle's considered half-vigilante." She snorted and rolled her eyes skyward, thumbs pausing temporarily as they hovered over her phone. "We've already got enough villains running around, we don't need more skulking around in corporations."

Mina frowned at that, slowly sinking back in her seat as she turned back to her food. "Yeah, I guess," she mumbled, feeling a bit more somber. The increase in villain activity compared to what she knew still made her highly uneasy and uncomfortable, but everyone here treated it so _normally_. The explosion which had closed school had been treated as perfectly routine, people barely even talked about it other than to complain they'd have classes tomorrow (on a _Saturday_!) to make up for the lost day.

She didn't like it, this world felt wrong and scary.

Pursing her lips, she slapped her cheeks and shook her head, banishing the dark thoughts before plastering on a bright grin. "Kirishima, we should go to the arcade after school today!" she announced, interrupting Kumiko's lecture. Kirishima startled, snapping a wide-eyed look at her.

"B-but I have to study!" he whined. "We have that big science test tomorrow, and my folks'll kill me if I fail!"

"Screw tests, we're only young once!" Mina declared, slamming her hands on the table with a fierce scowl. "We should live life to the max!"

"You're only saying that because you're guaranteed to fail," Anjou deadpanned.

"That too!"

"B-But Ashido—"

"No buts! You and I are going to the arcade so I can kick your butt in Mortal Kombat, no arguing allowed!" As Kirishima sputtered in shock Mina just grinned at him, knowing she'd already won the argument. Whether her Kirishima or this overly timid one, she always did have the edge in arguments like this. Her high enthusiasm just outshone his natural hard-headed stubbornness, which she was _really_ starting to miss.

Well, they'd work on it.

* * *

"Yaomomo called two times last night," Kyouka groused as she checked her phone, dragging a hand down her face.

"Again?" Kaminari poked his head out of the bathroom, a towel half-draped over his head as his hair dripped. "Maybe you should call her back and let her know you're, you know, alive...?"

"I might if I actually _knew_ her," Kyouka groaned, flopping back onto the couch. "I don't want to say the wrong thing and make her suspicious."

"...Yeah, that's fair." Kaminari retreated to finish drying off and Kyouka sighed, just staring at the text thread. After their first day in this weird world she'd basically moved into Kaminari's place in fear of Yaoyorozu randomly visiting. It sort of sucked, because Kaminari didn't have a multi-room apartment like she did, just a bedroom and bathroom. She'd been camping out on the couch, not daring to touch the bed for fear of what he might have done in it. But she doubted Yaoyorozu would _ever_ think to look here.

Avoiding a classmate felt weird and a bit uncomfortable, especially one who she considered such a good friend, but Kyouka didn't feel like they had many better options at the moment. Yaoyorozu was smart, easily the smartest girl in their class, if not the smartest person. At UA that made her an asset and valuable ally, but here, that only made her _dangerous_.

In this world, the most dangerous people would be those who were close to their counterparts and could tell if they changed. Based on the text conversations, Kyouka had apparently become best friends with Yaoyorozu at some point, even closer than they'd been at UA. If anyone would notice Kyouka acting differently, it would probably be her. For now she'd avoided suspicion by claiming she was experiencing some sensory overload from her Quirk and needed to stay somewhere quiet for a few days, but she couldn't avoid Yaoyorozu forever.

It sucked, because in any other circumstance Yaomomo would be an absolute asset. Especially _now_.

She sighed, letting her phone's screen go dim as she stared at the ceiling. This world sucked. She wanted to hurry up and go home, but they weren't exactly in a good position. They had failed to find any of their classmates online except Mineta, who they'd both agreed wasn't worth contacting. Even without his perverted tendencies, he wouldn't be much help here; he never did handle pressure well. It didn't seem like he was caught up in whatever _this_ was anyway, just like Yaoyorozu.

Though at this point, she admittedly wouldn't mind seeing _their_ Mineta again. Yeah, the guy was really annoying and gross at times, but as far as perverts went he was actually pretty harmless. He was more talk than anything, too weak and timid to be genuinely _predatory_. At most he would grab someone's chest if the opportunity arose, which, don't get her wrong, that was still _really bad_, but not like _sexual assault_ levels of bad. At least it was familiar.

The thought made her bark out into startled laughter, letting her arm drape over her eyes. She heard fumbling from the bathroom before the door opened, Kaminari no doubt peering out wide-eyed. "Jirou?" he asked in alarm. "What's with the weird laugh?" Kyouka's laughter faded to a chuckle, low and grim as she smirked at the ceiling.

"I think I'm actually missing Mineta," she replied, her voice coming out hoarser than she'd expected. There was a long moment of silence on Kaminari's end, the boy perfectly still. Then, she heard a low, "_Shit,_" followed by the door closing and more loud fumbling.

Lifting her arm a bit so she could see, she twisted her head towards the bathroom door just in time to see the blond soon burst out clad in a t-shirt and shorts. His body still hadn't dried completely, causing the white shirt to stick to his chest and look partially translucent while his hair continued to drip. Some people would probably find the sight to be seductive and utter fan service, but Kyouka found any such effects totally offset by A) it being _Kaminari_, and B) his comically panicked expression.

"Uh, d-don't freak out!" he said hurriedly, scurrying over to her while waving his hands almost frantically. "I know it looks bad now, b-but, it's not, like, this is p-permanent or anything! I mean, p-probably not, wait—ah, uh—_crap, I don't know how to do this, how do you comfort people_—just, um..." He trailed off, visibly struggling for something to say while Kyouka just stared at him almost blankly.

Scrambling desperately for words, he took a deep breath and pushed on, "Plus Ultra?"

UA's motto came out meek and hesitant, the blond wincing even as he held both hands in a thumbs up with a smile plastered on his face that looked more like a grimace than anything cheery. Kyouka continued to stare at him blankly, the silence causing his smile to falter more towards the "grimace" end of the spectrum as it stretched on, and his hands began to lower.

Finally, Kyouka spoke.

"You look like a total dork," she informed him flatly. Kaminari squawked, his hands falling to his sides as his jaw dropped in disbelief before he glared at her. Or at least, as much as a person like Kaminari could glare when obviously embarrassed.

"I was trying to cheer you up!" he sputtered defensively. "I mean, you're acting all weird and mopey lately! I'm trying really hard not to let us both freak out! Don't just dismiss my efforts so easily!"

"I'm not," Kyouka countered, smirking at him. "I'm just telling you the facts. You looked _really_ stupid there." More stunned sputtering followed her declaration, soon turning into a whine of frustration as he threw up his hands and spun around, marching off to the back part of the room where they'd set up a folding screen to create _some_ privacy. As he stalked away Kyouka's expression became softer, shifting to sit up straight. It hadn't been how he'd intended, but he'd managed to lift her spirits a little.

More importantly, now that Kaminari was done in the bathroom, she could take a shower. She could use one; his apartment wasn't _dirty_, but it still had that messy vibe like most "bachelor pads" that left it feeling a little less clean than her own room. With that in mind she rose to head to the bathroom, grabbing the bag sitting by the couch containing clothes she'd grabbed from her apartment, only to pause as an electronic ringtone sounded.

She glanced at the coffee table where Kaminari's phone sat, the screen now lit up with a notification of a text. Frowning, she picked it up and glanced over her shoulder at the folding screen. "Oi, Kaminari, you got a text," she called.

"Seriously? Who's it from?"

"It says..." Kyouka paused as she read the name shown on the preview, her eyebrows raising. "'_Scary Pink Lady._'"

"...What?" The blond poked his head into view with a puzzled frown, looking a bit worried. "What... what did she say?"

"Dunno, let me check." Kyouka swiped across the unlock screen and quickly keyed in the pin code. Seeing as neither of them really considered these phones _theirs_, they'd decided to just share their pin codes for easier access. She opened the message app and read it over quickly. "She's asking where you are." The phone buzzed again even as she spoke, a new message coming in. "...She just said, '_Too slow. Are you alive?_'"

"Uh... Type yes?" Kaminari sounded hesitant, not that she could blame him. Shrugging, Kyouka typed in the short response he dictated, question mark and all, figuring it would probably be better not to leave the person hanging.

Two seconds after pressing '_send_' a heavy knocking suddenly pounded on the door, making them both jump. They exchanged wary looks as the pounding continued, their expressions grim and serious. The timing left no doubt that "Scary Pink Lady" was the one knocking, but they had no idea who she might _be_. They didn't have time to look at the past message history for clues, and neither of them had their Hero gear to help direct their Quirks, limiting their options if a fight broke out.

Nodding at each other, Kyouka set down the phone and the pair approached the door in silence, quickly stationing themselves on either side. Kyouka crouched down to the side just behind where the door would swing open, gripping the ends of her earphone-jacks in preparation to fight. Kaminari slowly reached for the handle, pausing to glance at her nervously, and she met his gaze evenly with a small nod. Gulping as the knocking sounded again, he turned back and undid the lock.

The second it clicked the door flew open, a blurry figure zooming past him as he jumped back with a startled yelp. Kyouka jolted, nearly activating her Quirk on instinct before realizing the newcomer was a teenage girl wearing the same uniform she'd found in her own apartment. "Finally!" the girl proclaimed with a grin, speed-walking towards the coffee table and dropping a backpack on it. "I've been waiting all week to grab you! Come on, let's get to work Battery-kun!"

She turned to face them and stopped, a static smile plastered on her face as she looked at them. Kaminari had fallen into a half-abandoned battle stance, his hands half-raised to hover around his waist in an _almost_ defensive position while his legs were crooked. Behind him Kyouka remained crouched, still clutching the ends of both earphone jacks as she stared at the newcomer.

A long beat of silence passed, none of them moving as they stared each other down. The girl's smile remained still and unfading, thoughts unreadable, until finally she blinked.

"Oh, so you have a girlfriend now!" she said. "So _that's_ why you've been skipping school!"

"W-wh-wha!?" Kaminari sputtered in shock, while Kyouka deadpanned a flat, "What, _no_."

"But that's totally irrelevant to me!" the girl continued, ignoring them as she turned back to her backpack and ripped it open. "You still owe me that debt, Battery-kun! And we're now two days behind on testing!" She spun around to face them holding up some kind of bulky device with two antennae sticking out that Kyouka did not recognize. "Now hurry and power it up, I need to see if it works!"

"Um, what?" Kaminari squeaked, paling as he shrunk back. At that point the girl suddenly seemed to almost teleport right in front of him, her face inches away from his and making him jump back against the door with a small shriek. She just kept that unsettling smile, the crosshairs in her yellow eyes almost resembling sparkles as she leaned even closer to his face.

"We're doing the test here and now!" she informed him brightly. "If you wanted to do it in my lab, you should've gone to school!" She pulled away enough to thrust the mysterious device in his face, adding, "Now grab those handles and give it some juice! I want to see if my baby's working yet!"

Kaminari slid down slightly, a scared whimper escaping him as he stared up at her. Next to them Kyouka just watched blankly, her earphone jacks slipping out of her hands as she realized the danger was gone. Or, mostly gone.

"You're that inventor girl from the Support Department," she said, finally recognizing her from the Sports Festival. The girl turned her head to face her, still smiling and jabbing the mystery-device in Kaminari's face.

"I don't know about a support department, but yes, I am the great inventor Hatsume Mei!" she confirmed. "Remember my name, for one day my inventions will revolutionize the world! Starting with this baby! As soon as Battery-kun powers it up." She turned back to Kaminari, who winced and whimpered again as he shot Kyouka a desperate, pleading look.

"...Uh, why do you need Kaminari's help with this?" Kyouka asked, figuring it'd probably be better for her to take the lead.

"Because this baby is too strong for a conventional battery!" Hatsume proclaimed, not taking her gaze from Kaminari as she sort of shook her invention in his face. "With his Quirk, he can charge it directly!"

"What does it even _do_?" Kaminari asked, eying the object with fear and suspicion. Mostly fear.

"This baby will produce sound waves that will scan the room like sonar and generate a map, which it will then use to create a holographic projection that will cover everything!" A pause, and then, just as energetically, "If it doesn't explode again!"

"_Explode!?_" Kaminari squeaked, scrambling away from the object with a look of pure horror. "Holy shit, are you serious!? I'm not touching that!"

In response the object moved away from his face to be replaced by Hatsume's face, the girl bent almost ninety-degrees at the waist as she loomed over him with that same unsettling smile. "_But you owe me!_" she told him, just as energetic and manic as before but with an almost sinister edge. "Battery-kun short-circuited when he bumped into my bag and fried all the stuff in there! That's why you have to help me test _all_ my strongest babies until you've paid off your debt!"

"How much are we talking here?" Kyouka asked curiously as she watched her friend sink further to the floor, Hatsume leaning further in time with him. "Like, a few thousand yen, or..."

Mei temporarily straightened, turning her head to her. "Three hundred fifty-thousand yen's worth of circuitry and hardware!" she chirped, making Kyouka's jaw fell open with shock as she pushed on, "And he's only worked off five hundred of it! So get to work!" she added, turning back to a _very_ pale Kaminari.

At this point, the fourth wall must be broken to explain the severity of young Kaminari Denki's debt.

At the time of writing, the conversion rate of yen to US dollars is 1 Japanese yen equals 0.0089. Rounding up that 0.0089 to a neater 0.01, that would mean one yen is equal to roughly one cent, and one hundred yen is equal to a little under one US dollar. Thus, 350,000 yen would be equivalent to a little over 3,000 US dollars.

In short: Kaminari, with his limited allowance and income as an unemployed high school student, was _screwed_.

Back within the safe confines of the fourth wall, the young blond was hyper-aware of this fact and appeared to enter a fugue state, his eyes glazing over with blank horror as he stared up at the manic inventor girl currently shoving her latest creation in his face. Kyouka, who wasn't the target of the girl's rambling, still found herself struggling to get her thoughts back on track after hearing the insane number. Frowning, she lightly slapped her cheeks and took a deep breath, trying to organize her thoughts.

Hatsume Mei, she knew, was an incredible inventor. Her demonstration back in the Sports Festival using Iida as an unwilling model for her inventions had been one of the most memorable matches of all, if only by sheer merit of Iida's griping after he returned to the stands. Since then they'd seen her work sporadically, a few of her inventions being used in upgrades to their classmates' hero costumes.

Based on the past five minutes, it was pretty clear that passion hadn't changed here even if she didn't go to UA. Kyouka's mind raced with the implications of this. Hatsume was an eccentric inventor, one who she knew to be competent despite how abrasive her enthusiasm could be. The "exploding" part was a bit off-putting, but Hatsume _had_ just described something pretty big and complicated, as opposed to other devices that might be simpler.

"Hey," she said, cutting into Hatsume's prodding. "Do you take requests?"

"Requests?" Hatsume straightened and turned to face Kyouka completely this time, holding her invention at waist-level and giving Kaminari some much-needed breathing room.

"You said that thing works with sound waves, right?" Kyouka asked, nodding to the device. "Could you maybe do something similar, but with boots?"

"Boots?" Hatsume's smile remained unchanged, but her eyes held a more calculating gleam now. "Where would the sound waves come into play? Amplify the sound of the footsteps?"

"More like I plug my earphone jack in and they become speakers," Kyouka corrected, twirling one of the jacks for emphasis as she spoke. "My Quirk lets me channel my heartbeat into whatever I plug into and basically cause massive vibrations inside it. If I had sturdy speakers, I could turn it into sonic waves and direct them at stuff. I was thinking something similar for my hands, too. Gauntlets that double as Amplifier Jacks."

"Ooh, I see, I see!" Hatsume said, bobbing her head. "And then you'd be able to slam your hands on stuff and channel the sonic waves that way! I like it!" She thrust her invention towards Kaminari as she spoke, the blond scrambling to catch it and grunting as it plummeted into his lap. Hatsume strode towards Kyouka and stopped barely a foot away, their faces now inches away from each other as she leaned forward. "I can definitely do that, easy! But the question is _why_?"

"Do you really need a reason?" Kyouka asked, leaning back slightly but keeping her tone cool and collected. "You seem like the kind of girl who'd jump on any reason to invent something new."

"I am!" Mei confirmed with an enthusiastic nod. "I love inventing, it is my greatest passion! _But,_" she continued, emphasizing the word, "If my babies are misused, then I'll get in all sorts of trouble! People are so jumpy about villains these days. If my babies ever get tied to a crime, I'll be put under all sorts of restrictions!" Her smile remained intact but her eyes held a colder gleam now, more threatening and ominous as she leaned forward just a little more. "So if you're thinking of using my babies for something bad, then just stop now!"

Kyouka met her gaze squarely, undeterred by the sudden air of warning the other girl emanated. "I'm not a villain," she declared firmly. "I want to be a hero."

"A Hero?" Hatsume repeated, eyes still cold, still calculating, and Kyouka nodded.

"Like you said, everyone's jumpy about villains these days. There's too many villains, not enough Heroes. We might be in high school, but we have Quirks that can fight."

"We?"

"Me and Kaminari." She nodded at the blond, who had set down the invention and shakily risen to his feet during the conversation. He flinched slightly when Hatsume's head swiveled to look at him, but he quickly frowned and stood up straighter, a look of determination in his eyes. "You obviously know what Kaminari's Quirk can do," Kyouka commented as the duo stared each other down. "Imagine if he could direct it at a specific target."

"Battery-kun?" Mei echoed thoughtfully. "The electric shocks would be awesome, just zap his enemies and make them stop!"

"Exactly," Kyouka agreed. "Kaminari and I are both sick of this world. Heroes shouldn't be hiding in the shadows letting villains run amuck like they are. We shouldn't be living in fear of getting kidnapped just for our Quirks." Her voice rang with a firm conviction and honesty, her words fueled by a genuine loathing of this world so different than their own.

They had spent the past four days hiding here, feeling disoriented and paranoid about their safety in what seemed to be a much more violent copy of their own world. If a villain attacked them for any reason, their ability to defend themselves would be severely hindered without their support gear. Both of their Quirks worked best when used with some sort of gear to help control their aim, whether it be Kyouka's boots or Kaminari's sharpshooting gear.

They could still fight without it and defend themselves, but their combat effectiveness was severely crippled in comparison. Their first real battle back at the USJ alone had shown just how much of a difference it made for Kaminari to have a way to direct his electricity.

And the best excuse to explain why they wanted their gear?

"We're going to be vigilantes," Kyouka declared.

* * *

Miles away from Kaminari's apartment Yaoyorozu Momo frowned down at her phone, the message app open to her conversation with Kyouka. The other girl had been strangely quiet the past few days, and Momo hadn't seen her in person once. Supposedly her Quirk had acted up and she needed to go somewhere quiet until the sensitivity faded, but Momo had her doubts about that. The lack of responses perturbed her.

The sound of the elevator doors opening broke her from her thoughts, and she slipped her phone into her bag as she stepped out into the hallway. She'd tried waiting for Kyouka to call or text her, but she couldn't stand it any longer. Walking past the rows of doors at a brisk pace, she stopped before the one marked '304' and rapped on the wood. "Kyouka?" she called. "It's Momo."

No response. Her mouth thinned, eyes hardening as she tried the handle. Locked.

Glancing around to check for witnesses or security cameras, she crouched down and discreetly pulled the hem of her uniform shirt away from her stomach, activating her Quirk. Two small, solid metal picks quickly formed, one bent at a ninety-degree angle and the other straight with a curved tip.

They fell into her waiting hand and with a fluid and almost graceful motion she slid the bent one into the bottom of the key hole, slipping the straight one in above it. _Sorry,_ she apologized mentally as she began silently working at picking the lock. It took less than a minute before she heard a final click, and she quickly withdrew the tools and turned the knob to find no resistance.

She hurried inside and closed the door behind her, looking around the room with a frown. Kyouka's apartment looked the same as she remembered, everything still in place and nothing noticeably different from her last visit.

"Kyouka?" she called, walking towards the bedroom door. "If you're here, say something." She hesitated as she reached for the handle, not wanting to defy common courtesy by entering her room uninvited. Offering another mental apology she took a deep breath and pushed it open anyway.

The room was empty, no sign of Kyouka, and Momo bit her lip.

Turning on her heel, she walked briskly past the open bathroom door, pulling out her phone and dialing Kyouka's number. Once again it kept ringing with no answer, but she'd come to expect that at this point. When the now-familiar voice mail message started she hung up and opened up a message app instead, tapping out a quick note. '_Kyouka's not at home and not answering her phone. Any news on activity in Hosu?_' She pressed send and held her breath, waiting for the answer.

Soon enough she saw the three dots indicating the other person typing a response. '_Nothing major. Didn't she say her Quirk was acting up?_'

'_She did, but I don't know why it would suddenly get sensitive. Am I just being paranoid?_'

'_Maybe, but better safe than sorry. I'll ask the others to keep an eye out. Just stay calm, there's still a chance she's just busy right now. I'll see you tomorrow._'

'_Right. See you then._' She exhaled quietly as she slid the phone back into her bag, glancing around Kyouka's apartment one last time. No signs of a struggle at least. That didn't comfort her as much as she hoped.

* * *

**So on AO3, someone predicted that Jirou and Kaminari would be rich in this AU, and I actually laughed. You now see why. I am oddly fond of that fourth wall break to help explain the debt. Computer parts can get expensive. Also, meet Anjou and Kumiko! Kumiko is loosely based on one of the girls from Kiri's flashback to Mina was friends with in a flashback. For the record, Mina calls Kumiko by her given name since they're good friends, but Anjou is called by her surname since they're not as close.  
**

**Also, unpopular opinion time: I don't actually hate Mineta like most of the fandom. Might be because I grew up with the Naruto fandom and thus Jiraiya, but his brand of perversion comes off much closer to comic relief to me. Just, really badly written and executed comic relief. Believe me, I'm not defending him. I absolutely get what's wrong with his actions and totally understand why so many people dislike his character. I don't fault writers for replacing him with someone else or having him expelled right off the bat. But if there's one thing I hate in fan fiction more than anything else, it's when people hyper-focus on one negative trait and use it to paint the REST of a character's personality.**

**Seriously. Mineta's a pervert, but he's not a stuck-up entitled bastard who sees himself as better than everyone else. Actually he has some pretty big confidence issues. If ****he got expelled on the first day, I think he'd probably just burst into tears rather than get angry or offended that someone else passed over him. Same goes for Endeavor. He might be a bad dad, but he wouldn't get to the Number Two rank in the first place if he had ******a** civilian body count as high as some people portray. Seriously,**** I'm pretty sure _massive collateral damage_ would be factored into his ranking. At the very least he wouldn't use his full strength and incinerate a city block to go after a petty thief.  
**

**Please don't hyper-focus on one bad trait and ignore the rest of a character's personality. Most of the characters in MHA are actually pretty well rounded and developed, they're not one-dimensional caricatures. Just saying, even serial killers in real life are usually able to hide their true nature and be "upstanding members of the community" when they're not murdering people.**


	8. Chapter 8: A Dark and Stormy Morning

Chapter 8

.::A Dark and Stormy Morning::.

Rain pelted the streets as Shouto hurried down the sidewalk towards the bus station, tugging the hood of his plastic poncho further over his head to try to deflect the heavy drops from hitting his eyes.

The storm had struck hard and heavy the previous night around eleven, and had not let up even now over twelve hours later. He'd already taken cover in a net café for a majority of it, paying the necessary fee for a ten-hour block mere minutes before the first drop fell. It had been pricier than he'd hoped and it must have shown on his face, because the worker gave him a free drink and even offered him a spare rain poncho she'd just bought. He really needed to thank her more.

He'd spent most of the night doing intensive research on this new world, sleeping only about two hours total, and only because he figured a short nap would be better than nothing. Sleep didn't come easily after everything he'd learned anyway; his dreams had been plagued with nightmarish visions of UA being attacked and All Might falling at that fateful battle in Kamino. After waking up in a cold sweat, he'd been reluctant to look into the current leading heroes or any of his teachers, dreading what he'd find.

He did find plenty of other useful information though, finally getting a name for the city in the process. To his immense surprise he was in Shikotori, a small but lively city about half an hour east of the port city Numazu by train or bus, and a little over one and a half hours south of Musutafu. In retrospect, it explained the prevalence of seafood restaurants in town. That said, it didn't matter too much since he planned to leave soon.

At present, Shouto saw no point in going to Musutafu. UA had shut down, cutting off the most valuable potential resource there, and even if it had still existed he wasn't sure it'd be worth trying. He couldn't see himself easily convincing the staff he originated from another dimension, and he didn't exactly have any evidence for his story. That same reasoning also eliminated most hero agencies—not that he'd found many public ones, further limiting his potential resources.

Instead, he decided to start with the lead he'd found the previous day: Tokoyami.

Further research into Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow had only solidified his suspicions that the cloaked figure was his classmate, several videos clearly showing him using Dark Shadow. Tokoyami tended to lurk in the background more often than not, letting Gentle Criminal take the lead in his online monologues and heists. It was obvious that the older man was the leader in the partnership, and so most people tended to focus on him more than his silent cloaked companion.

As it stood, Gentle's roaring popularity meant Shouto had plenty of information available. All the articles he'd read painted the thief as far more morally scrupulous than most villains, usually performing his heists to draw attention to corporate corruption. He minimized damage to property and people as much as possible, going out of his way to avoid harming even the Pro Heroes and police who responded. Shouto didn't dismiss the possibility of it all being a façade to cover up a twisted and vile personality, but if so, it was a good one.

For all his intense popularity here, Shouto only vaguely recalled Gentle Criminal from his own world, and only because his classmates had watched a couple videos in the common room for kicks. He had a rather grandiose personality from what Shouto saw, overly verbose and obviously quite prideful. Shouto hadn't paid much attention at the time, more focused on his own homework, and he regretted it now since any insight would be useful in picking apart his persona here.

No matter of his true personality, Shouto pinned Gentle's popularity as his primary threat. This world was already tottering on the edge of imbalance; it didn't need a villain being worshipped so openly, no matter how harmless or chivalrous he might be. Maybe that was why he was so popular here compared to his world. This world needed change and reform, and Gentle was the type of existence that could incite such an event.

In any event, Shouto didn't care so much about him as he did Tokoyami. Though their interactions had been somewhat limited at school—neither of them were particularly social—he had the sense the bird-headed boy would be likely to actually believe his story. While he couldn't tell if this world's Tokoyami had undergone any drastic changes that might change that, the possibility alone that he _might_ made the decision easy.

The heist the previous day had been in Odawara, the latest in a string of robberies in that general region. It would be a rather short ride to get there, only an hour by bus. Shouto had already checked the schedule and prices for tickets online, and had managed to scrounge together enough money to pay for one. Shouto now had a destination and a plan. An admittedly reckless plan, since he was seeking out the sidekick of a nationally wanted villain, but he didn't have any better ideas.

Ironically, an independent villain might actually be the _safest_ option right now anyway. Heroes worked in tandem with the government after all, and a boy from an alternate reality would draw all sorts of attention. He'd probably end up being taken into custody while the investigation began, and he had a feeling this world's bureaucracy would be an even worse nightmare than his own world. It'd be better if he could move freely.

Thunder rumbled ominously above him for several long seconds, breaking him from his thoughts and making him tuck his chin into the scarf as he walked a little faster. He doubted lightning would strike him—there were plenty of tall buildings nearby—but he'd still feel more secure once he got to the bus stop. Lightning flashed above him with a sharp _crack_, the white-hot streak of light splitting across the dark clouds and illuminating the near-empty street.

That was the reason Shouto finally spied them.

Two figures stood near the wall of a building not too far ahead, their distant silhouettes hazy and nearly invisible in the thick rain. In the split-second the lightning illuminated them Shouto could see that one had all but pinned the other to the wall, their posture hunched and menacing while the other shrank down towards the ground. A mugging, he recognized instantly, eyes narrowing.

The streak of lightning faded and darkness fell again, the figures vanishing into the ether once more, but their shapes had been burned into Shouto's mind. He frowned as he came to a momentary stop, rolling over his options in his head. In the end, he didn't have to think too hard, and he resumed walking at a brisker pace.

"Hey," he called as they entered his line of sight, short and sharp. Through the rain he could see the mugger's figure twist slightly to look at him, his features lost in the darkness of the storm.

"Go away!" he snarled. "We're in the middle of something here, mind your own business!" Shouto didn't bother responding or letting him say more than that. He surged forward without warning, ice rippling around his right fist and encasing it in a thick, hard shell. The mugger didn't even try to block him as he swung it upwards in a harsh uppercut to the chin, the sound of ice crunching and bone cracking mixing together just barely audible over the rain.

Just like that the man went down, falling back and hitting the ground unconscious in an almost anticlimactic fashion. Shouto huffed as he pulled back his fist, letting the ice fragments melt. Using his Quirk the way he usually did would be dangerous if someone happened to recognize it, but he could at least do this much. With the threat handled he turned to face the other person, still crouched against the wall with shoulders tense.

Now that he'd gotten closer he could see it was an adult male, wearing a scruffy-looking dark jacket that only further blended with the shadows. Shouto thought he faintly heard a "holy shit" just barely audible over the rain, but decided to ignore it.

"Are you alright?" he asked flatly. The man flinched, tensing as if anticipating a strike. Shouto thought it over and decided he probably looked pretty suspicious, and held up his palms in a non-threatening manner. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I just saved you from a mugger."

"H-how do I know _that_?" the man demanded shakily. "This could be a trap!" Shouto glimpsed wary orange eyes in the shadows of the hood, glinting in the little light available on the street. They shone with fear and wariness, obviously suspicious of Shouto.

"If I was going to mug anyone, it'd be him," he pointed out dryly, inclining his head towards the unconscious man lying beside them. "He's already unconscious anyways." Actually, the idea was somewhat tempting now that he'd said it loud. He _did_ need money, and he could just drag the would-be mugger to the police station afterwards. Shouto entertained the notion for a few seconds but then quickly dismissed it. The urgency of his situation aside, he was still a hero in training. Stealing from even a would-be thief would be unethical.

Across from him the man remained tense and suspicious, his eyes still searching, but after a few moments Shouto saw him nod slightly. "R-right... Guess you have a point there, huh." He rose slowly, watching Shouto the whole time. The teen remained still and kept his posture relaxed, hands still at his sides. Once the man had straightened he seemed to relax, heaving a large sigh. "Shit, what a day... Uh, thanks, I guess."

"Don't mention it," Shouto responded with a shrug. "Do you have a phone to call the police? They'll want to get him."

"Shit, phone, yeah, let me just..." He began rummaging through his pockets, soon pulling out a smart phone before cursing quietly. "Dammit, I can barely see the screen with this rain. I'll have to go somewhere covered to unlock it and make the call."

"There should be a bus station nearby," Shouto suggested. "Not sure how far it is though, I don't know the area that well."

"Bus station, bus station... Yeah, that's just a block over. That'll work." The man nodded and turned to begin walking at a brisk pace, Shouto trailing behind him silently. The would-be victim remained jumpy and on edge during the walk, shooting suspicious glances back at him but saying nothing. Soon enough a glass bus kiosk came into sight, the walls misty with condensation and carrying an ethereal air under the glow of a nearby streetlamp. No one else was there when they slipped inside, but the man seemed to relax nonetheless.

Shouto sat on the bench with a soft sigh as the other pulled out his phone again, quickly unlocking it to call the police. While he described the mugger and his location Shouto rifled through his own pockets, taking the opportunity to count the money he had on hand. His lips thinned as he reached the last coin; it would be tight, but he could afford the ticket. After he arrived though would be another issue, he wouldn't have enough left over to buy even water from a vending machine.

He sighed, deciding to shelve the thought for later as he loosely listened to the phone call next to him. "...just ran away," the man was saying. "Didn't get a good look at him, just heard a punch and then he was gone. No, no idea if he used a Quirk or not, kinda hard to see. Sorry." Shouto frowned, his eyebrows furrowing as he listened to the man wrap up the call.

"You lied," he commented once he'd hung up. The man jumped, snapping a startled look at him, but soon his shoulders sagged and he exhaled a tired breath. With the streetlamp outside he could now see more of the man's features, looking to be in his mid-twenties with sharp-looking orange eyes and slightly damp strands of black hair trailing in his face.

"Would you rather I tell them you're waiting for a bus so they can bust you for vigilante activity?" he asked dryly, his expression just as tired as his voice sounded. Shouto hummed quietly, assessing the man a moment longer.

"No, I wouldn't," he confirmed flatly, turning his gaze back to his meager savings. He could feel the man watching him as he counted out the coins he'd need for the ticket, but chose to ignore it. For a few seconds the only sound was the heavy rain violently assaulting the glass, each individual drop sounding like it was trying to shatter it through force alone.

"You look like the kind of kid with a story," the man commented. Apparently he'd decided Shouto didn't pose a threat anymore, his voice sounding more relaxed and calm now. "Not every day I see a kid willing to punch out a guy for a stranger." The teen just shrugged, stuffing the few leftover coins in his pocket.

"Should I have just walked away then?"

"Most people would," the man said. "Especially a kid living on the streets. By the way, is the eye patch related to the scar poking out under it?"

The nonchalant question made Shouto stiffen, slowly lifting a wary gaze towards the stranger. His fingers itched to reach towards the eye patch and feel the tips of the red scar just barely peeking out under it, his uncovered eye focusing on the man suspiciously.

"Does it matter?" he asked crisply, his tone sharper than intended.

"Maybe, maybe not. Like I said, you look like a kid with a story. And going by that scar, it definitely isn't a nice one." The man shrugged, a small frown playing across his lips as he glanced out at the rain. It made for a sharp contrast to the fearful and suspicious person who'd been cowering under the shadow of his attempted mugger just minutes earlier. It made Shouto even more wary, his eyes narrowing.

"Do you have a point with this?"

"You're here because you want to catch a bus, right? Any chance you're heading to Odawara?" When Shouto remained silent, the man huffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm asking because that's where I'm heading. Bus should be here in a few minutes, I'll cover your fare. After that you can come to my place and get some food there."

"Why?" Shouto asked, not bothering to hide his suspicion. The man's eyes darted back to him, meeting his gaze from the corner of his vision.

"You just took down a mugger for me," he said flatly. "Not every day I meet someone who's willing to do something like that, especially not a street kid like you. The least I can do to pay you back is cover your fare and get you something to eat. Maybe clean up a bit, too," he added. "No offense, but you look like this is the closest you've had to a shower in weeks."

Shouto's glare faded slightly at that, his mouth thinning as he turned away. He had a feeling he was probably right on that last mark. Still, the man was a stranger and Shouto found himself wary of the invitation, even with his explanation of gratitude. But then his gaze darted to the small collection of coins in his hand, the few coins in his pocket feeling much lighter.

That settled it for him and he sighed in defeat, stuffing the money into his pocket. "Fine." Not like he had any better options. If it turned out to be some sort of trap, Shouto felt fairly certain he could take the guy down anyway.

The man smiled at that, nodding at him. "Glad to hear it. The name's Kuroe, by the way." He didn't provide a surname, Shouto noticed immediately, the blatant omission only heightening his suspicion. He frowned slightly and hesitated to respond, trying to figure out what name he should use when Kuroe spoke up again. "You don't need to give me a name if you're not comfortable with it. I know street kids are pretty suspicious and paranoid, probably for good reason, too."

The remark gave Shouto pause, furrowing his eyebrows. "...Do you know a lot of 'street kids'?" Kuroe snorted quietly, his lips curling into a smirk.

"A few," he replied, a glimmer of amusement in his eye at some sort of secret knowledge. Shouto didn't know what that meant, so he just remained silent until the bus arrived.

* * *

"_I'm sorry, your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice-messaging..._"

Dabi didn't let the message finish before he violently jabbed the "end call" button, his face twisted in anger. "Mother_fucker_!" he cursed loudly, nearly slamming his phone down on the table to resist the urge to throw it at the wall instead. He couldn't afford to break it, he didn't have the money to buy a new one, but god_damn_ he _really_ wanted to break something right about now.

Five days.

It had been _five days_ since Shouto had woken him up by blasting him with ice and running off to hell knows where. That had to be one of the worst wakeup calls to date, which was really saying something since "rough mornings" had been the norm even before the whole runaway pseudo-fugitive lifestyle. Getting up was hardly appealing with the knowledge that a flaming asshole was waiting for you to make a single mistake so he could blast you to hell over it.

But getting frozen in a block of ice? Turns out that was way worse.

While his burns had now mostly scarred over, the skin was still thinner there than other parts of his body so it practically felt like the ice had touched his bare _muscle_. On top of that, he had metal staples bridging the gaps between the scar tissue and regular skin all over his body. Metal and cold did not mix, and it was _hell_ when that metal was directly embedded into your body. The only saving grace was that the ice hadn't covered his face. That... would have been _really_ bad.

As it stood, the suddenness of it had left him too stunned to react right away, and then the sheer _pain_ had incapacitated him another few minutes. It had taken him several more minutes of cursing to finally get angry enough for his Quirk to flare subconsciously and melt the ice. And still, he found himself partially immobilized as he tried to recover from the cold, teeth chattering while his whole body dripped water like he'd been dunked in a pool. Which would have been a _much_ nicer way to wake up.

And five days and one hundred-three calls later, and he still had no idea why the fuck that happened.

"Fucking hell, Shouto," he growled under his breath, scowling at the wall. He _knew_ the brat had his phone, the fact it rang _at all_ instead of going straight to voice mail told him it wasn't off _all_ the time. But the fact he wasn't answering was a bad sign.

It would be so much easier if he could send him a text, but _no_. Texts left an easily traceable trail, and someone could easily see the message when the preview would pop up on the lock screen. Even leaving a voicemail wasn't an option; if someone heard it and recognized his voice, it would be game over. His only option was to keep calling until the idiot picked up, which at this point _didn't seem fucking likely_.

He yelled in frustration, swinging a hand at the wall behind him and letting blue flames flare out and scorch the stone. The heat from the fire warmed his palm, his hand drawing away before the flames could lick the skin while his other fist clenched at his side. "_Dammit_," he hissed, his blue eyes flashing with rage as he scowled and brought a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Waiting was no longer an option. So far he knew no one had recognized the brat or else "_Endeavor's missing son_" would've been plastered all over the news, but that wasn't good enough for him. Dabi needed to find the brat as soon as possible, partially to kick his butt for being such an idiot, and partially to keep him from getting into _more_ trouble.

The longer the kid was out there, the riskier things got for him. The last thing he needed was to get any sort of attention. Right now, Dabi _really_ wished he'd just torched the fucking brat when he'd had the chance. He hadn't though, he'd decided to be _nice_ and now it'd come back to bite him in the ass.

Cursing loudly, he swiped his phone off the table and stormed out of the room, slamming the door hard enough to rattle it. Fuck this, Dabi was done sitting around this abandoned dump just waiting. If the brat finally decided to return on his own he'd just have to call Dabi himself. Wouldn't _that_ be a nice change of pace?

Either way, he had a brat to find. At the very least, setting some stuff on fire sounded like a _really_ good way to de-stress right about now. He _would_ find Shouto, no matter what he had to do.

* * *

**Enter: Kuroe. One of my ******all-time **favorite OCs, hope you guys like him! Also, Dabi is mad. If it's not immediately obvious, it's now Saturday in the story.**

**Heads up: Next chapter is going to be slightly darker than the rest so far. See you next week!  
**


	9. Chapter 9: New Discoveries Every Day

**TRIGGER WARNING: Izuku's section features descriptions of a muzzle. Read with caution.  
**

* * *

Chapter 9

.::New Discoveries Every Day::.

One of the biggest perks of attending UA was that the school handled all the more difficult parts of being a hero for its students.

That didn't mean it made becoming a Pro Hero _easy_. Students had to work hard each and every day, to the point they had a _six_-day school week as opposed to the more common five (though Saturday was only a half-day), along with expectations to continue working and training outside of class too. Falling behind could lead to fatal mistakes in the real world after all, so the school tried to weed out those who struggled to keep up as early as possible.

No, UA definitely didn't make classes easy for its future heroes. But it did take care of the second most important detail of being a hero: the gear.

The fact was, a Pro Hero was often only as good as their gear. Quirks alone could only do so much; they needed good support equipment to optimize their capabilities. Even the costumes were designed with how to best work with their Quirk and fighting style in mind, down to the methods used to actually put it on. Designing a cool-looking costume was easy enough, but making it fully functional and optimal? Not so much.

Denki _knew_ this. He had already underestimated the importance of a good costume and support gear once, learning his lesson back at the USJ when he'd had no way to direct his electricity because he focused on aesthetic over function. Thankfully he'd survived in part due to Yaomomo's quick thinking, but he'd learned from his mistakes then. He put in a request for the Support Department, got sharpshooter gear and pointers, and overall came away from the incident with a greater appreciation for good support gear and costume design.

But now he realized he'd greatly underestimated one other factor: UA's role in _providing_ that gear. Something Denki hadn't realized how much he should appreciate that until he found himself in a busy shopping district on a Saturday afternoon in another dimension shopping for parts for a ragtag vigilante costume.

"It'd be best if we got you some sort of armor, but stores don't really sell that," Hatsume said as they walked down the row of stores. The pink-haired inventor had taken lead on the impromptu shopping trip, babbling on about the necessary specs for their new gear and costumes. "It sucks, but we can't really buy stuff like Kevlar at a fabric store, and the government's cracked down on the sales of most of the other materials that can be used for villain or vigilante costumes. We can still get some of it, _buuuut_ it'd be really pricey and we'd probably be put on a watch list."

"So you can't just, I don't know, make it yourself?" Denki piped up hesitantly. "I mean, I dunno what goes into making it, but you're pretty good at making stuff. And, like, didn't you have a _suit of armor_ at your workshop?" He still hadn't gotten over their visit to her warehouse workshop that morning before going shopping.

"That baby's totally different!" Hatsume dismissed with a wave. "The armor parts are mostly just regular metal plating that I can reinforce and improve with my technical genius. It's _way_ easier to get the raw materials for that. But when it comes to custom-made polymers I don't have the equipment to make any, or even access to the resources and chemicals I'd need. Besides, my specialty is _building_ stuff, not designing costumes. I'm just here to make sure whatever you guys buy will work with my babies!"

"That's fine," Jirou said with a shrug. "I think we'll be trying to avoid close combat situations anyway. Our Quirks can be used in long-range attacks with the right gear so we should prioritize that and armor for close-range combat second." Hatsume's head swiveled to look back at her with a giant grin, her eyes flashing with a dangerous gleam that made Denki shudder.

"I knew you were smart!" she declared gleefully. "I can tell you and I are going to get along very well!" Turning back forward, she continued in a calmer tone, "But my glorious babies aside, the final costume design will be very important. _Especially_ for vigilantes! The aesthetic is going to be key here."

"Seriously?" Denki asked, eying her warily. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I know functional costumes are really important—" again, he'd learned his lesson after the USJ, "—but, uh, aren't vigilantes supposed to _avoid_ being recognized? Full-blown costumes seem kinda... the opposite of that."

He then proceeded to jump as Hatsume suddenly whirled around and leaned in his face, once again ignoring the existence of personal bubbles. "You are exactly right!" she confirmed with an almost feral glint in her eyes. "Vigilantes are huge targets, so you _really_ can't risk being identified. And that means you can't just throw on a domino mask or visor and call it a day. You need to hide _all_ identifying traits!"

Denki leaned back in attempt to get some space as she spoke, while next to him Jirou looked thoughtful. "Yeah, that's a good point," she muttered, glancing at him. "Like, Kaminari. Your hair sticks out too much."

"Wait, really?" he squawked, snapping his head to look at her in slight betrayal. "What do you mean it sticks out? It's blond and spiky! It's not like it's Quirk-related like that vine girl or Mineta!"

"But it has that black lightning bolt," Hatsume chimed in, finally stepping away and giving him space. "And your Quirk, Battery-kun, is _electricity_. Everyone at school knows that!"

"They do?" Denki squeaked. He didn't know why that'd be common knowledge, he didn't exactly _flaunt_ his Quirk outside of classes at UA, so maybe she was just exaggerating—

"Well, duh! You're a living phone charger!" Oh, right. That made total sense. He got used as an emergency phone charger at UA too, makes sense he did that here. Denki noticed Jirou shooting him a smug smirk and shot her a brief glare, before frowning in sudden realization and whirling to face her.

"Well, in that case, what about _you_?" he pointed out almost frantically, jabbing a finger at her ears. "Your Quirk is all about your earphone jacks! It's not like there's a bunch of people out there with those." Jirou's smug look faded at his words, her expression growing more serious.

"No, you're right, that is a problem," she muttered, lightly gripping one and twirling it around her finger. "It stands out too much, and I can't really disguise them."

"Oh, don't worry, I already have ideas on how to handle _that_," Hatsume assured her with a grin. "That's why I'm here! To make sure your costumes will work with my babies exactly how I need them to!"

"I thought you said you didn't design costumes," Denki interjected weakly, and winced when Hatsume snapped another near-manic grin his way.

"I said my specialty is building inventions. I didn't say I _can't_ design costumes! Making sure your costumes function exactly as needed is part of the inventing process, there's no point in you guys needing to replace your costumes because they get in the way of my babies working right!"

With that she whirled around and marched off down the street, the two hero students sharing a pointed look behind her. Neither of them missed how she'd prioritized her inventions over their costumes, but Denki figured he couldn't really argue with that. Hatsume _was_ the inventor after all, and right now they did need to prioritize the equipment. Denki wasn't sure he trusted her to make the costumes look _cool_, but it's not like they planned to be stuck here forever. It'd be easier to let her take lead.

"Anyways, I hate to bring this up, but... what about the money?" he asked as he and Jirou followed after her. "I mean, I think I'm pretty broke since I'm in debt right now, and I don't think getting stuff from a thrift shop would cut it." He tried not to grimace too much as he spoke, and noticed Jirou mirror the expression as she glanced over at the stores.

"No, we need something sturdy and long-lasting," she muttered under her breath. "We can't trust that whatever we find at a thrift shop will be good enough to hold up under stress."

"Used stuff is not an option!" Hatsume called over her shoulder. "I refuse to let my babies come in contact with something so low-quality!"

"What's our budget?" Denki called back. "You're the designer, so—tell us how much!"

"Budget is up to you two! You guys are paying for your own stuff, so figure it out yourself so I can know what my limits are! Also, get cash, it's harder to trace!" She turned forward again and didn't see the pair grimace behind her, exchanging grim looks. Neither of them actually knew how much money they actually _had_. Since waking up they'd spent most of their time in Denki's apartment, only leaving once to buy some cheap bento lunches at a convenience store using whatever they had in their wallets.

They were _high school students_. It's not like they kept copies of their bank account information lying around their apartments.

Glancing around, Jirou's eyes soon zeroed in on something across the street. "Kaminari, do you have a debit card?" she asked and Denki frowned, pulling out his wallet to check its contents.

"Yeah, I do."

"Then let's go check our balances," she said, and grabbed his wrist to drag him across the street to an ATM. Since he'd already gotten out his wallet Denki went first, sliding his card in the slot and hoping the PIN code for his phone would work. Thankfully it did, the small screen changing to show a full menu, and he quickly jabbed the "check balance" button.

As he stared at the number he felt his shoulders sag in disappointment, a dejected groan slipping out. Pink appeared in his peripheral vision as Hatsume poked her head over his shoulder to look at the screen, her usual manic smile gone and replaced by an assessing look. "Wow, you're going to be in debt to me _forever_," she commented, and he didn't even have the energy to flinch at her proximity.

After that he quickly withdrew ten thousand yen, ignoring the uncomfortable twist in his gut as he thought about how much that cut into his remaining funds. Ten thousand was definitely a lot with how low his balance was, but it wasn't like they planned to stay here forever, and the stuff he'd buy today could be the difference between life and death. Yeah, it'd be better to not cheap out on it now. No point saving money when you're dead, right? _Right?_

...That didn't help as much as he'd hoped it would.

"My turn, I guess," Jirou said as he stepped away with a sulky air, pulling out her debit card with a tense set to her shoulders. She pushed it in the slot and tapped in a code, frowning when the screen told her it was wrong. Eyes narrowing in thought, after a few seconds she typed another one and released a small sigh as it worked and the menu appeared. She quickly hit the "check balance" button, and the others leaned over her shoulder curiously to look.

And look.

And look.

"...That's _so many zeroes_," Denki whispered, his face draining of color as he stared at the number displayed on the screen.

"That settles it, you're our primary sponsor!" Hatsume squealed, clapping her hands on Jirou's shoulders. "We're going to get real quality for this! Come on, get out some money and let's go-go-_go_!" The rocker-girl remained silent as the inventor bounced away excitedly, just staring at the screen with a rare dumbfounded expression. Denki frowned and glanced at her worriedly, perturbed by her rare break in character.

"Are, uh, are you okay?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm freaking rich," Jirou said quietly, her tone blunt like usual but rendered oddly somber by how _soft_ it was. "I could pay off your debt ten times over." Denki frowned as he looked at the stunned look on her face, glancing around at the largely empty sidewalk before stepping closer.

"It's... not like this back home, is it?" he asked lowly. Jirou just nodded slowly, not looking away from the screen.

"I know dad's a successful musician here," she said. "I saw all the album covers and the texts with him talked about him going on tour. But—I didn't think he was _that_ successful."

"Wonder what was different here from our world," Denki wondered aloud. Jirou's lips tugged slightly downwards at that, her eyes losing some of their stunned glaze. After a moment she took a deep breath, schooling her expression to its usual look of disinterest as she went back to the menu and moved to the withdrawal screen. Hesitating only briefly, she jabbed in a 5 followed by four zeroes, her finger hovering above the screen for a moment before quickly jabbing submit.

Fifty thousand yen's worth of five thousand yen notes plopped into the dispenser one by one, and she swiped up the small stack and stuffed it in her wallet along with the card. "Come on, let's go," she said and turned to stalk after Hatsume, her expression cool and collected as usual. But even so Denki noticed the way her hands clenched at her side, her lips pressed together just a bit tighter than usual.

He frowned but remained silent as he trailed after her, knowing better than to press. Whatever was bothering her wasn't any of his business, at least not right now. They had bigger priorities at the moment.

* * *

Oddly enough, it took until day five of being in the alternate dimension for Seiko to finally appear again.

"You haven't slipped up yet," she intoned behind him while he was sitting at his desk on his laptop. Izuku jumped in surprise and whirled around in his seat wide-eyed to see the girl standing next to his bed.

"I—wha—how?" He stammered lamely as he stared at her, his eyes flitting between her and his closed bedroom door. "D-didn't I lock it?"

"Locks mean nothing," Seiko said flatly. Her face was blank as ever, her eerie luminescent white eyes conveying no emotion as she stared at him. Izuku swallowed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck as he quickly averted his gaze from her.

"Uh, r-right... Okay then." He cleared his throat, daring a glance her way. "I haven't, uh, seen you around anywhere. Where... where have you been?"

"Watching." That... really did not comfort him.

_It must be part of her Quirk,_ he thought. He knew her Quirk involved shadows in some capacity; during their first and only meeting she'd manifested an extra appendage from dark energy to close the slat on the door, and then she'd left by disappearing _into_ the shadows. Maybe she could convert her body into a shadow? But something about that didn't feel quite right. Shadows weren't really corporeal after all, and that appendage had clearly been able to touch things.

Unfortunately, his Quirk Analysis notebooks didn't give him any clues. He'd scoured them for information on the rest of the League, figuring it would be useful both here and whenever he got home, but Seiko had been notably absent from them. It puzzled him since unlike Aiko who only appeared in conversations, his journals included brief mentions of her starting in the second one. Even those didn't help, just off-handed references to seeing her hiding or her passing on gossip or warnings.

He... really didn't know anything about Seiko, did he?

"No one has noticed you acting differently," she said, either oblivious to his growing unease or choosing to ignore it. "It's impressive. You might break the record."

"Uh, thanks, I guess," he muttered uncertainly, and paused before asking, "Wait, _record_? What's the old record?"

"Seven days." Seven days, huh? That didn't seem difficult. He'd already made it five, and Izuku had no intentions of slipping up in the next two days if he could help it. He frowned, rubbing his chin with his index finger as his eyebrows furrowed deep in thought.

"How... how long do these episodes usually last?" he asked.

"Around two weeks on average," Seiko informed him. "The longest one lasted forty-one days, the shortest three. For the record, you have yet to go an entire episode undiscovered."

"Right... Thanks." Izuku nodded, filing the information away. _So there's no advantage to pretending to suddenly have amnesia now._ The thought was maybe a little disappointing, but it didn't impact his plans; he'd already resolved to avoid that anyway. After spending five days here he'd started to adjust to being constantly around villains, as well as learned the lay of the building. If he tried to suddenly fake it _now_, his reactions and confusion wouldn't be as genuine as when he'd first woken up.

More importantly, though, his observations of his interactions with Shigaraki made it pretty clear to him that he wouldn't react well. The older male was _definitely_ protective of him—which he _still_ didn't quite understand—and if he thought Izuku was amnesic? He'd order a near-constant watch on Izuku until his memories returned.

That wasn't just speculation on his part. The journals described how he'd had to basically be followed by at least two villains until it ended, to the point he couldn't even sleep in his room alone. If he was under watch, Izuku's actions would be severely limited until his memories returned, and his chances of getting home would be that much lower.

The fact was, Izuku had no idea how he got here. He literally went to bed in his dorm room, and woke up the next morning in another dimension. Obviously this was the work of a Quirk, but he had no clue about how it worked. It's not like he'd ever heard of a Quirk like this—or at least, not on this scale. Right now he had only his own knowledge of Quirks in general to use as a basis for his speculation.

He was too worried about someone checking his notebooks to risk writing his theories down, so his thoughts were a jumbled mess so far. He had no idea what triggered it, but he figured there had to be some sort of limiter or conditions on it. Most likely it would either wear off naturally after a few days and he'd just wake up at home, or he'd have to fulfill some condition to return. He couldn't risk assuming the former to be true and just sit around waiting. But if he needed to _do_ something to trigger it, he had no idea where to begin.

(Izuku firmly refused to consider the possibility the displacement was potentially permanent. There _had_ to be a way to get home, if only for the sake of his sanity.)

Hence why he needed to be able to move freely. This world had several large differences from his own, but as far as he could tell the people _mostly_ remained the same. A few had died and others had likely taken different allegiances (seriously, he found one listing _Native_ as a villain—just, _why!?_), but at the very least he'd concluded their _Quirks_ remained the same. Therefore, his best option would be to find the counterpart of whoever this Quirk belonged to, and ask them for details.

Which was... still a tall order. From what little he could glean online, people were highly paranoid about revealing their Quirks, and rightfully so. A few of the "new" faces in the Villain Alliance had been initially recruited through force and kidnapping, some of them quite young at the time—a method they'd originally planned to use on Bakugou too. Others had been _killed_ if they'd been deemed too old to recruit. Izuku wondered if Seiko fell into that category—

And that suddenly reminded Seiko was still in the room. He startled as he snapped his head towards her, finding the girl still standing next to his bed. Staring.

_Unblinking_.

A small chill ran down his spine and he swallowed, pasting on a sheepish smile. "Uh, s-sorry, I think I spaced out for a second," he apologized.

"I could tell," she replied blandly. "You weren't mumbling this time though. That's rare."

"Huh, yeah. I guess it is, isn't it?" He internally sagged with relief at that, belatedly realizing just how disastrous that could be. Izuku knew he tended to mumble without noticing when he fell deep in thought, and if Seiko had overheard anything he'd been thinking about just now... well, he wasn't sure how he'd explain it.

_I'll have to be careful not to think about this too much around others._ Just thinking about it made him shudder. Izuku wasn't sure how Shigaraki would react to another dimension's Izuku replacing his own, and he'd rather not think about it.

"As I stated, no one else has noticed yet," Seiko said. "Your cold at the beginning gave you some leeway to deflect suspicion on your odd reaction time, and you're mostly following the same routine. You're a bit more quiet than usual, but the cold and your shock over Bakugou helps explain that. However, there is one crucial detail which may give you away."

"There is?" Izuku straightened up at that, his gaze growing intense as he frowned at her. "Tell me." He couldn't let anyone see through his act now. It was too late in the game to suddenly play the amnesia card, he couldn't fake any of his confusion anymore and more importantly he couldn't risk the scrutiny.

"How much have you read of the seventh journal?" Seiko questioned, and Izuku frowned.

"Only some of it," he admitted. "I read the most recent entries about Kacchan, but mostly skimmed the earlier parts." He'd been a bit uncomfortable reading over those entries, so he'd skimmed just enough to make sure there wasn't anything else urgent before focusing on combing through the older journals.

"Four weeks before Bakugou was detained, another teenager was captured," Seiko told him, her tone brisk and professional as if dictating a situation report. "He came to the Alliance's attention after using his Quirk to act as a vigilante, ultimately leading to three members being arrested. He refuses to share his name, and is being detained as a potential recruit or a future example."

As she spoke Izuku's stomach fell more and more, painfully twisting at the last part in particular. _A future example._ He didn't need to ask her to elaborate on what that meant, just listening in grim silence as she continued. "You were visiting him regularly to try to convince him to join peacefully. You got distracted by Bakugou's sudden arrival though, and it's been over a week since your last visit. The others will notice you've stopped soon and become suspicious."

"Where is he?" Izuku asked, determination already setting in. He didn't even care about deflecting suspicion this time. He'd found plenty of news stories about vigilantes who had gone missing only to resurface maimed and forever scarred—if they were even _alive_. He didn't want to see someone else suffer that fate, especially another teenager.

His thoughts seemed to show on his face, because Seiko inclined her head. "I'll show you the way." He nodded as he got up from the desk to walk to the door, unlocking it before tugging it open. The younger girl glided past him without so much as a glance his way, taking lead as Izuku followed in silence.

The walk was short and uneventful, encountering no other people in the halls. It was Saturday now, so most of the Alliance had left to "enjoy the weekend" despite not really having a job during the working week. Seiko led him down a series of turns he hadn't taken before, ending in an unfamiliar hall lined with solid steel doors. He swallowed as he glanced around, noting most had electronic number pads; it wasn't the same area with holding cells where Bakugou was kept, but he could tell this was no less a prison.

Seiko stopped at the mouth of the hallway, pointing at one of the doors. "He's in there," she told him. "The code is 8442. You'll have to manually lock it again when you leave. His Quirk isn't physical and is easy to neutralize, so he has more privileges than others. He knows basic hand to hand, but he won't attack you." Izuku couldn't tell if that was supposed to be reassuring or simply another basic fact, her tone and expression didn't really give any hints to her intent.

"Thanks," he mumbled, and took a deep breath as he walked towards the door, his heart pounding anxiously. This was different from everything else so far. He had no idea what to expect when he opened the door, no idea how he was expected to react. The person behind the door was a complete unknown. Clenching his fists, he lightly rapped on the door and waited a second before punching in the code and opening it, unsure what to expect but trying to brace himself for anything.

He thought he could handle it. He thought that nothing in there could take him by surprise. But he still was absolutely unprepared when he caught sight of messy purple hair, his heart sinking with chilling recognition as lilac eyes flitted his way.

_ Shinsou Hitoshi._

The teen was sitting sprawled on the bed towards the back with his knees half-bent, a book lying open against them. He looked almost casual and relaxed, wearing a plain blue t-shirt maybe a size too big and dark gray sweatpants. They were just slightly too short for his tall frame, allowing Izuku to glimpse a dark band around his right ankle with a flashing red light, but he barely noticed it, his eyes riveted to Shinsou's face.

_He was wearing a muzzle._

Izuku's breath hitched at the sight, his blood running cold. He didn't know a better word for the metal contraption wrapped around Shinsou's jaw, surprisingly sleek and form-fitting so that it pressed against his face while leaving his nose uncovered. What truly made him feel sick was the lock built into the right side near the hinges, a key hole visible even from a distance.

As their eyes met Izuku couldn't speak, only stare in mute horror. His mind flashed back to Seiko's words—"_His Quirk isn't physical and is easy to neutralize_"—and he realized with a sickening chill how right she was.

The other boy's shoulders sagged and he set the book on the mattress, getting up to walk to a desk in the corner and pick up... a whiteboard? Izuku's stomach sank further as Shinsou uncapped a marker and began writing, turning the board to face him.

'_What do you want now?_'

It was a simple question, short and to the point. Izuku could almost hear Shinsou's deadpan voice saying it aloud as he read it, except he _couldn't_ because of the muzzle and—

He banished the thought before it could spiral further, sucking in a sharp breath before forcing himself to speak. "I, I was worried," he stammered. "It's, uh, been a while, s-so I thought you might be bored, or..." He trailed off as the other boy snorted, the sound muffled by the metal _thing_ covering his mouth, and flipped the whiteboard to write something else. Once he finished he turned it back to Izuku to read, his eyes perfectly flat and cold.

'_It's been a week since you last visited. Are you back because you're finally bored again?_'

Reading those words sent an icy spike of guilt through Izuku, the green-haired boy swallowing harshly as he nearly winced. _I didn't know you were here,_ he wanted to say, but the words died well before they could reach his tongue. Instead, he shook his head and said, "N-no, that's not it! I... I got caught up in something, s-so I couldn't come by for a while. I'm... I'm sorry." Even as he spoke he could feel tears well in his eyes, his voice wobbling as he stared at Shinsou with his hands shaking at his side.

_He didn't know._

He didn't know Shinsou was there. He hadn't realized there'd been anyone besides Kacchan there until Seiko told him—except, that wasn't true, was it? With another sudden drop in his stomach he abruptly recalled the letter he'd read the first day, and the list of current events tacked on the end. One of the last ones had mentioned another prisoner who made him uncomfortable. "_I feel bad about how everyone's treating him, but I might be able to be friends with him if he can warm up to me._" That had been what his other self had written, but Izuku had forgotten all about it after seeing the final note about Kacchan.

_Shit._ Izuku's guilt multiplied at the realization he'd totally forgotten about it. The note _even said_ to check his journal for information on the prisoner, but he'd just skimmed the journal enough to make sure he had a basic overview of the situation. Maybe if he had actually taken time to read it, not just look for basic names, he would've seen the clues about Shinsou's identity—or at least thought to _check_ on him.

He swallowed, his shoulders hunching with shame as he looked at Shinsou. "I-I'm sorry," he repeated weakly, sniffling in a vain attempt to prevent himself from crying. "I'm s-so sorry." Shinsou's expression was near impossible to read, the task made even more difficult with the muzzle obscuring his mouth, but he thought (_hoped_) he saw something soften in the other boy's eyes before he turned the board around to write some more.

'_You're here now. What do you want?_'

Izuku wasn't sure if the question was meant to be cold and irritable, or some sort of attempt at a peace offering. Either way it didn't matter though. He sniffled and quickly rubbed his eyes with his arm, but it did little to stem the tears. He took a shuddery breath as he crossed the room, Shinsou automatically stiffening and looking alarmed and wary by his approach, but before he could react Izuku threw his arms around him.

The taller boy staggered back at the sudden weight, his back bumping against the desk and the white board dropping to the ground with a clatter. His arms hovered awkwardly at his sides as Izuku just hugged him tight, tears streaming down his face. "I don't know," he choked out. "I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know, I didn't know, I didn't know, I'm so sorry..."

As he continued rambling and crying he felt Shinsou stiffen in his embrace before hesitantly reaching a hand to awkwardly pat his back. That just made Izuku cry harder, tightening his hold as more guilt washed over him.

From the shadows in the corner of the room a pair of glowing white eyes watched in silence before blinking shut and vanishing altogether.

* * *

**Here's one of the characters I've been waiting to show for a while: Shinsou. His Quirk is just too valuable to go unnoticed and it was a matter of time before he got targeted, but hey, at least he got to be a vigilante and take down some bad guys before his inevitable capture.****** The hero dream's still alive.****

**That said, he's definitely in a bad place compared to almost everyone else in this universe. I actually wrote up what happened when he first woke up, and let's just say his stay has been unpleasant. No torture or anything, but still pretty dang traumatic until Izuku showed up. Unfortunately, the muzzle won't be removed for a while yet. But don't worry, Izuku's going to get it off him eventually.**

**Thanks for reading! See you next Monday!**


	10. Chapter 10: Networking is Everything

Chapter 10

.::Networking is Everything::.

Morning came all too soon for Shouto. He felt a mild surge of disappointment when his dream began to drift away and he realized he was now awake, too groggy to react much other than to try to go back to sleep. It felt as if he hadn't slept this well in some time, the bed too comfortable—

_Bed._

Just like that the morning haze clouding his mind vanished, his eyelids grudgingly snapping open despite wanting to remain firmly shut. For a moment he panicked as he took in the sight of an unfamiliar bedroom, the room still dim thanks to curtains blocking the windows. It was the first time he'd been in a proper bed since waking up in this strange other world, the rest of his nights spent in abandoned buildings or parks.

_How did I get here?_ he thought desperately. Then the events of the previous night came rushing back, making him catch his breath and relax slightly. _Right, Kuroe._

He'd ridden the bus to Odawara with the man he'd saved and taken him up on his offer to go to his house for food and a shower. Wary as he was of the stranger, Shouto couldn't deny he desperately needed a good meal after eating cheap convenience store food for the past five days. The prospect of a shower had only sweetened the deal.

From there, it just sort of... got out of his control. It was probably the most peaceful day Shouto had since waking up in this world, and standing in the shower with warm water washing away the thick layers of grime and sweat was the first chance he had to really _relax_. His mind began to calm down, and then the stress of his situation just... faded, along with most of his other thoughts. He didn't remember most of the shower honestly, he'd stood there in some sort of daze until Kuroe banged on the door saying it'd been an hour.

The rest of the night was only marginally clearer. His clothes had been filthy so Kuroe had given him a spare t-shirt and sweatpants to wear while he tossed Shouto's stuff in the washer. By the time it finished it was already late enough for dinner, another offer he couldn't turn down since he didn't know when he'd have a chance to eat a proper meal again. After _that_ it had already grown dark outside, and when Kuroe offered him the spare bedroom Shouto was just too exhausted to even consider refusing.

It had been foolish and dangerous, an offer that could have easily been a trap. A risk he never would have accepted had he been in his right mind.

_Did he use some kind of Quirk to mess with my head?_ he wondered as he got up, but deep down he knew that wasn't the case. Shouto had just been _tired_, five straight days of nothing but tension and anxiety leaving him weak, and the idea of an actual bed was too tempting to resist in that frame of mind.

"Dammit," he hissed to himself, running a hand through his hair. He took a moment to assess his state. At the moment he still wore the borrowed clothes, his now-clean original outfit folded atop the dresser, while the phone sat charging on the night stand. A glance at the clock revealed it was a bit after nine, and he grimaced at the realization he'd slept for nearly twelve _hours_. Twelve _hours_ of total vulnerability if anyone had tried to enter the room. At least he'd had the sense to lock the door.

Mentally cursing his recklessness again, he quickly got changed and grabbed the eye patch. Though Kuroe had already noticed the bottom of the scar Shouto had made a point to keep it on around him, since the mismatched blue eye was still too distinctive for his liking. Once he pulled it on he paused to stare at the mirror, frowning at his reflection.

Right now, with his hair dyed black and his left eye covered, it almost felt like he was looking at a stranger. He leaned closer to the mirror as he touched the edges of his burn scar, just barely visible beneath the eye patch. Hesitating, he removed it to look closer at the scar, noting how its shape matched his memories. He didn't know what to think of its presence because it meant that for all the differences he'd found, this world's Shouto had still gone through some of the same things, still seen his mother break.

_Bzz. Bzz._

He stiffened as he heard the night stand shake with the vibration of the cell phone, and his reflection's face immediately morphed into a scowl. _Screw it._ He jerked the eye patch back over his eye and adjusted it to hide his scar as much as possible before stalking out of the room. The phone was still vibrating when he closed the door.

Shouto found Kuroe sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal as he typed away on a laptop. Without his jacket and hood to add bulk to his figure he cut a much thinner figure. Kuroe had a thin and lanky physique, his straight black hair brushed to the side towards the right half of his face while the rest was left an unkempt mess.

He glanced up at Shouto as he entered, nodding at him. "Morning. Take it you slept well?"

"Well enough," Shouto muttered, still a bit wary as he slid into the seat across from him. There was an empty bowl and spoon sitting there along with two boxes of cereal, so he took it as a silent invitation to fill it with his choice and begin eating. Kuroe didn't bother trying to strike up a full conversation, turning back to his laptop.

For a while they just ate in silence, only the clicking of the keyboard filling the room. Shouto couldn't help but notice the laptop was surprisingly nice and high-end given the rest of the house looked rather worn-down. Most of the furniture was obviously old and used, collected and arranged with minimal attention to aesthetic taste and more focused on practicality. Some of it looked like it'd been found in a dumpster.

But Kuroe had a house. A small one, with two floors and maybe six rooms total, but an actual house and not a cheap apartment. Sheltered as Shouto admittedly was, he knew that single adults typically could not afford such a place.

As he thought over it the man's eyes flitted upwards, catching how Shouto's eyes focused on his laptop. "Lemme guess, wondering about the money?" he commented, making Shouto pause.

"Are you a mind reader?" he deadpanned, though he spoke carefully, wondering if that might be the case. Kuroe just snorted though, rolling his eyes.

"Nah, I just know the worn-down house and nice laptop is a weird combo. I'm a freelancer. Do a lot of programming work, among other things. A friend agreed to help buy this place in exchange for some favors, and the place was already super cheap on the market at the time."

"Why?" Shouto asked, and Kuroe's smirk became morbid.

"Suicide in the bathroom upstairs," he replied wryly. "Drowned themselves in the bathtub. Body wasn't found for over a week. They had to rip out the tub before putting this place on market. Odor was still there for a while after I moved in, and that was months later." Shouto blinked slowly as he processed that, the cereal in his mouth suddenly feeling lumpy and tasteless. He forced himself to swallow as he set down his spoon.

"I... see." An uncomfortable tension fell over the room, or at least for Shouto. Kuroe seemed relaxed, returning to his typing. Shouto sat uncomfortably for a moment, trying to ignore thoughts of a person dying near where he'd spent an hour in the shower. Frowning, he pushed the thought aside and asked, "So if it's not mind-reading, what _is_ your Quirk?"

Kuroe's fingers briefly stilled, dark orange eyes flitting his way. "Kind of a personal question, don't you think?" Shouto frowned, knowing he was right, but he couldn't get the thought out of his head.

"You know mine though," he pressed. "You saw it yesterday when I used it on that mugger. It's only fair." Kuroe was silent at that, his eyes unreadable as he gazed at Shouto searchingly while Shouto met his gaze evenly. For all the man had helped him so far he still found himself suspicious of Kuroe's motives, and knowing his Quirk could help alleviate some of that.

Finally Kuroe sighed, turning back to his laptop. "...Damn, guess you've got a point," he muttered. He didn't say anything else though, just went back to typing. As the silence stretched on Shouto felt himself grow more and more apprehensive, his unease growing. He was just about to demand he elaborate when Kuroe finally spoke. "I'm Quirkless."

The answer threw Shouto for a loop, the teenager blinking once. "Come again?"

"You heard me. I'm Quirkless." Kuroe didn't look at him, just kept his attention focused on the screen as he talked. "I don't have a Quirk. All I've got going for me is my wits and connections."

Now Shouto was openly staring at him, not bothering to hide his shock. Quirkless people weren't exactly an alien concept to him—his father's head accountant was Quirkless, and so was one of his elementary school tutors—but he'd never met one who admitted it so openly and _bluntly_. Most people seemed to be ashamed of it.

He frowned, closing his mouth as his gaze turned calculating. "How do I know you're telling the truth? If you are, you're basically telling a stranger who you know has a powerful Quirk that you can't defend yourself."

"Yeah, I know," Kuroe grunted. "But it's not like you're a threat. After all..." His fingers stilled again, sharp orange eyes flicking his way briefly before turning back to the screen. "Pretty sure Endeavor's kid won't randomly attack a defenseless civilian."

A loud bang echoed through the house as Shouto stood abruptly with enough force to topple his chair, his hands slamming on the table. He stared at Kuroe wide-eyed, his face contorted into a cross between a scowl and grimace as he tried to control his breathing. "You," he started but stopped, unable to finish the thought. As his heart continued to pound in his ears he swallowed, his fingers curling atop the table and his nails dragging along the wood. "How—?"

"I noticed your roots last night when we got here," Kuroe explained. He closed the laptop and pushed it to the side, turning to face Shouto with a steely gaze. "It's not much, but your hair's starting to grow out and some of the original color's showing. Red and white isn't exactly common. Coupled with the scar and the ice it's pretty obvious, though I had to look up a photo of you while you were in the shower just to make sure."

Shouto's mouth thinned at the explanation, glaring at him warily. "What do you want?" he demanded, his tone low and dangerous. Kuroe held up his hands.

"Nothing. I only bothered looking you up to make sure I wasn't letting a guy who'd murder me in my sleep stay over. I have a pretty good idea of why you're on the run and hiding out, and as long as you don't go villain it's none of my business. Seeing as you went out of your way to stop that mugger, I'm assuming you haven't gone darkside since disappearing."

Shouto didn't respond to that, just continued to stare down Kuroe suspiciously as he silently debated if he was being truthful. The other man remained still, hands still raised in the air and his face calm, but as the silence stretched on he could see a hint of nervousness flicker in his eyes. Finally, though, Shouto slowly sat back down, and Kuroe released a small sigh as he let his hands fall to his sides.

"I still don't trust you, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now," he informed Kuroe dryly as he picked up his spoon to resume eating.

"That's fair," Kuroe agreed. "And smart, too. Better than some kids I know. Though that said," he added, his eyes becoming a little sharper, "I'm more interested in what _you_ want."

"What I want?" Shouto echoed, not bothering to mask his distrust and suspicion. Kuroe nodded, seeming to take a moment to plan his next words before speaking.

"Odawara is nice, but it's more of a tourist destination, not the kind of place a runaway would go unless they're passing through. You have a goal here, don't you?"

Shouto didn't respond immediately, peering at the man with narrowed eyes. "If I did, why would it matter to you?"

"Because if you're here chasing some sort of Villain activity, then there's a good fucking chance it'll affect us too," Kuroe responded bluntly, his expression growing hard. "I don't know why, but this city's avoided a majority of the organized crime. If there's a chance that will change, I need to warn everyone else ASAP so they can prepare."

Shouto frowned at that, his mouth opening to respond when something the older male said suddenly stuck out to him. "Everyone else?" he repeated, and Kuroe paused one again, his expression becoming more thoughtful. When he spoke next his words were careful, his tone measured.

"Society's become rougher for people with strong Quirks. With the balance so off-kilter there's practically a power vacuum on the hero side, and the villains want to keep it that way. Flashier Quirks get targeted all the time, either for recruitment or to snuff them out before they get any ideas. Odawara's one of the only places that's not gone to hell in the last ten years. As long as people keep their heads down, it's safe. Or at least," he added, offering Shouto a pointed look, "It _should_ be. And _they_ need to know if that's about to change."

The burnt orange color of his eyes reminded Shouto of fire in its intensity as he stared at him. The teen suspected Kuroe wouldn't elaborate on that any more, but he didn't need to. Beneath that cold edge in his tone Shouto could pick up a note of protectiveness, a desire to help _someone_ he considered more vulnerable. From a man who claimed to be Quirkless and thus considered vulnerable by a large majority of the population, that definitely said _something_.

After a few moments of consideration he reached a decision, meeting Kuroe's gaze squarely. "My reasons for being here are private," he said bluntly. "However, I promise you I have no intentions to seek out any major villain organizations, and have no knowledge of any being here."

It wasn't _quite_ a lie, since he'd come here seeking out Gentle Criminal and Tokoyami, but his research indicated that they operated independently. He didn't think they'd pose a threat the way Kuroe implied.

Kuroe eyed him silently, seeming to consider Shouto's response in a strange reversal of the stand-off from just minutes earlier. Soon though he nodded and relaxed. "Alright, I guess that'll have to do for now. But just in case, here." He pulled something out from his pocket and placed it on the table, sliding it towards him. Shouto's head tilted downward to follow its trail across the wood, surprised to see a flip phone and charger.

"What's this for?"

"It's hard surviving alone out there," Kuroe responded cryptically. "Especially for a kid on the street. Having a network... helps."

Shouto's eyes narrowed suspiciously before picking up the phone and flipping it open. It had far less apps than his own phone, the functionality clearly more limited. Taking a second to figure out how to use a phone with only a keypad, he opened the contact list and noticed it seemed to be almost exclusively businesses.

"An arborist and a tailor?" he asked dryly, turning an unimpressed look at the man. Kuroe shrugged, a wry smirk playing across his lips.

"Don't expect any of those to be _actual_ businesses. If you need anything, or _see_ anything, just call one of the numbers in there. I'll let them know to keep an eye out for you." He pushed back his chair and got up, nodding at Shouto as he picked up his laptop. "Anyways, I need to get to work. Let yourself out whenever, and grab a hat if you want." With a final nod he turned and left, leaving Shouto to stare blandly at the flip phone.

He still didn't trust Kuroe, didn't know if he even trusted anyone on the phone's contacts to actually be helpful. But he thought back to the fiery intensity in those orange eyes, that note of protectiveness he'd heard so often during his time at UA. After a long moment of contemplation, he silently slid the phone and charger into his pocket and resumed eating the cereal.

Once he finished he returned to the bedroom to grab the other phone and its charger, and dug through the drawers to find a worn-looking gray beanie to cover his roots before slipping out of the house.

* * *

Day six of living in an alternate reality. Mina had officially reached the boredom threshold.

Going to a new school kept her busy and all that, but today was a Sunday. School didn't meet on Sundays. Apparently this one didn't even have class on most Saturdays, unlike UA which had a super-busy six-day schedule. The previous day they'd only had classes because of that villain attack shutting it down on Tuesday.

Now, normally, the weekend was a _good_ thing. School was _boring_, Mina had enough trouble focusing on classes at UA, and that was a school that split between hero-related subjects and regular academics. Her new high school? Which had no hero course and focused purely on all the other stuff? _It sucked._ Sitting in classes all day going over stuff they hadn't covered at UA got _really_ boring and frustrating, especially when she didn't _need_ it.

The only things keeping Mina from just skipping classes entirely were Kumiko, Anjou and Kirishima. Hanging out with Kumiko again and getting to know Anjou was really fun, and while he still wasn't quite _her_ Kirishima, Kirishima was still Kirishima. He'd been one of her best friends once they went to UA, and she could see more than enough of hers in this version to make up for the differences. Yeah, Mina really didn't see any point in going to school except to hang out with them at lunch and stuff.

But today Kumiko had to meet with her family and Anjou had unspecified stuff to do, leaving Mina with limited options for the day. Part of her contemplated going over to Kirishima's apartment two doors down and dragging him out to do stuff, but he'd said something about needing to do a major project for their science class due Monday. He'd sounded kind of panicked about it, so interrupting him might not be the best idea.

_Maybe I should do that too, then,_ she thought, grimacing slightly at the prospect of _homework_, but then paused.

...She had no idea what science project was due on Monday.

"Well, guess that's out!" she declared with a cheery smile, throwing up her arms in celebration. Not like she could do the homework if she didn't know what it even _was_. Legitimate excuse! (Maybe she should be worried about how the teacher would respond tomorrow to her not having it, but that was a problem for _Monday's_ Mina, not today's.)

But that still left her with nothing to do.

Smile fading, she hummed in heavy contemplation before going over to her laptop to flip it open. When in doubt, _internet_. Mina always did like the internet, it gave her plenty of stuff to do and look at when she couldn't come up with any ideas of her own. So far the internet here had been really depressing though; every time she searched something to find more about this world, it just seemed to give her bad news.

Except Ingenium. Iida would be so happy to know his brother was totally fine here and was still an active hero.

Mina's eyes lit up as she recalled her ever-serious classmate. They hadn't been particularly close, the class representative a bit too straight-laced for her carefree personality, but they still had plenty of fun moments. It was so funny to see him react to stuff. Their first week in the dorms someone dropped a banana peel in the kitchen and he actually _slipped_ on it! That was hilarious.

She grinned as she remembered more stuff, like way back at the start of the year when the press managed to invade UA. She'd been one of the many kids in the packed hallway who saw him floating and sticking against the wall above the door, yelling at them to calm down. His body's position at the time led to people calling him "_Emergency Exit Sign_" for a couple of days afterwards. Of course Mina and several others had tried to convince him that would be a totally awesome hero name—

_Ding._

Just like that Mina jolted upright, inspiration striking. Opening a new tab to FacePage, she went to her account settings and scrolled until she reached the option she wanted. This world's FacePage had some differences from the one she knew, namely the ability to create a "child" profile that could send and receive messages without being openly linked to the main one. It was a security precaution for people who were extra-paranoid about sharing their accounts with potential new friends, and they could be deleted easily.

Clicking the "create new" button she quickly filled out the form fields needed to generate a new profile, a giant Cheshire cat grin spreading across her lips when she saw her desired name was available. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she set it up, quickly grabbing a picture online and messing with it in an art program to use as the profile picture. At the end she hit "submit" and leaned back, nodding to herself in satisfaction once it posted.

...Now if only she knew what to do next.

* * *

Kayama Nemuri's heels clicked against the tiled floor as she walked down the hallway, her fingers combing through her low ponytail with a mildly frustrated sigh. Today she wore a simple outfit, a long powder blue sweater to ward off the chill and a pair of thick navy leggings paired with black heeled ankle boots. It made for a rather casual looking outfit, much more cozy and fit for the late autumn chill than her old hero costume.

Of course, it would probably be warmer if not for all of the rips along the sleeves, strategically hidden along the seams to minimize the chances of anyone noticing. That one detail made this the closest thing she'd worn to a proper costume in a while.

Honestly, she _missed_ her hero costume. Some people found Midnight's dominatrix-style outfit to be tasteless and too "racy" for a Pro Hero, but Nemuri didn't care about a "family-friendly" image. She hated the idea that Pro Heroes _had_ to be "appropriate for all ages," had since she chose to use the title "18+ Only" when deciding her codename way back in high school. She didn't want to be limited to some preconception of how heroes _should_ be. Plus, the thin bodysuit was so much easier to rip than literally all of her other clothing, only one step below her original concept.

Unfortunately though, the current state of society forced Nemuri to put her days as Midnight behind her to operate more behind the scenes. While Nemuri was perfectly fine at combat and didn't mind the increasing risk that came with operating publicly, her Quirk, Somnambulist, proved much more suitable for larger operations. The ability to put large amounts of enemies to sleep at once could easily turn the tides of a battle, and so she and her allies wanted to keep her continued career as low-key as possible to keep the edge of surprise.

That in turn meant no more patrols or slipping into her costume unless she was participating in a planned raid. Her Midnight persona just drew too much attention to herself to justify keeping in the public eye when the element of surprise could be so crucial. Sure, people still knew Midnight existed once, but after years out of the spotlight most villains forgot about her or wrote her off as a glorified sex icon who got scared off.

Though by no means did she just sit around doing nothing outside those raids. She'd just had to take a different approach to her activities.

_Still miss being Midnight though,_ she thought wistfully as she opened the door to the meeting room. Several other former UA staff had already gathered around the table, Nezu flashing her a bright smile from the back. "Ah, Kayama-san!" he greeted politely. "Thank you for joining us today! I apologize for calling you out on short notice."

"No problem, I don't have to do anything scheduled until tomorrow," she replied, slipping into the empty seat next to Hizashi. She glanced over at her old friend, her eyebrows pinching together with worry. "Mic, are you holding up alright?" The blond huffed quietly, not looking at her.

"I'm fine," he muttered, not really easing her concern. He'd certainly _looked_ better; while he'd largely stopped with his iconic cockatiel hairstyle outside publicized appearances a while back (too much time and work to prepare on short notice), his loosely looped ponytail looked more like a tangled rat's nest. She had to suppress a wince as she imagined how much it would hurt to try to remove it; they'd probably have to cut the band off.

Apparently the others shared her sentiments. "Mic, that mopey look on your face doesn't suit you," Snipe huffed. His gas mask made it impossible to see his expression but she could imagine a sharp glint in his eye as he stared at the Voice Hero. "You're supposed to be loud and proud, aren'tcha? Act like it!"

"Not in the mood," Hizashi grumbled, and across from them Kan sighed.

"Mic, you can't keep moping forever. It's been, what, almost six months now? That's a long time. Even Blank Slate doesn't know anything. By now—"

"_Kan,_" Nemuri cut in sharply, shooting a pointed look towards Hizashi. His head bowed forward, his fists clenching on his lap beneath the table and his teeth visibly grinding in frustration. The silver-haired man looked at him and promptly shut his mouth, huffing softly through his nose. On Hizashi's other side Ectoplasm placed a hand on his shoulder, offering the blond silent comfort. Nemuri could see him tense briefly at the contact, but he soon relaxed.

"Is this everyone who's meeting today?" he asked, turning back to Nezu.

"It should be," the former principal confirmed with a bob of his head. "Recovery Girl is busy with a patient right now, but she's already been briefed on the situation."

"No Hound Dog or Cementoss?" Snipe piped up, glancing around the room. At the moment the long table had seven of its chairs occupied: Nemuri, Hizashi, Snipe, Kan, Power Loader, Ectoplasm, and Nezu himself.

"They're helping Thirteen up in the mountains," Power Loader offered on Nezu's behalf. "There was a landslide last night so they're trying to find people. They woke me up at two last night to get some gear before heading out."

Snipe scoffed as he leaned back. "Tch, should've guessed. Must be nice to work so openly like that." The complaint held no real heat or animosity. Of the former UA staff, those two had been the ones most suited to rescue operations. Villains thankfully tended to leave rescue heroes alone since they focused on saving people from natural disasters over fighting crime. Hound Dog and Cementoss still hung around, but they often got called to help.

"We can brief them later," Ectoplasm added. "We're recording this meeting to send a copy to Sir Nighteye, so we can just send them the tapes too."

"What _is_ today's meeting about, anyway?" Nemuri asked, eager for the subject change. Searching her memory for joint ventures with Sir Nighteye's agency, she leaned forward and added, "Sir said they were going to investigate Shigaraki's 'brother,' right? Did they find something?"

Nezu perked up at that, his typical smile growing slightly as he bobbed his head. "Yes, there actually has been some progress on that front!" he confirmed cheerfully, and hopped out of his chair to pad over to the computer terminal in the corner of the room. Typing away at a speed they all struggled to follow, he explained, "We have not definitively confirmed anything, but they've narrowed it down to one suspect and used old photos in conjunction with the witness accounts to put together a detailed recreation of his face."

With a flourish he pressed a button and the computer monitor comprising the wall behind him lit up with three images. One showed a young boy about seven or so walking along a snowy playground, tufts of curly dark green hair poking out beneath a knit blue hat and face half-turned towards the camera to reveal freckled cheeks and bright green eyes. Next to it was a more direct photo of him at an even younger age, his smile almost timid as he gazed at the camera.

However, front and center was a computer-generated image of the same boy as a teenager, his curly hair just a bit more bushy and unkempt than before, and his face a bit sharper but still soft and round. His green eyes lacked the spark of life a real photo would hold, his expression blank and pushing the image _just_ over the edge of the uncanny valley to send prickling unease creeping down everyone's spines.

Nezu appeared immune to its effects, turning to them with a smile as he clapped his paws together. "Everyone, please meet Midoriya Izuku, our most likely candidate for Shigaraki's brother."

Nezu's cheery proclamation was followed by silence as the gathered Heroes stared at the monitor, studying the three pictures intently. All of them had heard of Shigaraki's younger brother, the boy having been on their radar for over a year since he'd first been reported by one of Nighteye's interns. The computer-generated image certainly _fit_ the description he'd given. However, as realistic as it looked, they knew it didn't guarantee total accuracy.

"Are those the only pictures you could find?" Power Loader muttered, his scowl perfectly clear without his helmet obscuring his face. "He looks like he's only five in one of them. Aren't there any _other_ school photos?"

"Yes, well, the situation is delicate," Nezu hummed. "We can't make our search into this matter too obvious without risking negative backlash or unwanted attention, so that limits our options for how to investigate. That said, there isn't much information available about Midoriya-kun. He disappeared roughly eight years ago at the age of eight shortly after his parents died. A year later, his elementary school was destroyed after a bombing during its summer break, destroying all records and photos from his enrollment there."

"That _is_ awfully convenient," Snipe remarked sarcastically. "I'm guessing finding a yearbook's a no-go, too."

"Sir Nighteye's agency did manage to attain two yearbooks," Ectoplasm spoke up, "from when he was six and seven. The one up there is from when he was six, but for some reason he couldn't take a photo when he turned seven. The next year, the company that printed the yearbook encountered some... _problems_, due to the actions of a disgruntled former employee with a technopath Quirk. It resulted in a large number of missing photographs."

"Right, I think I know what you're talking about," Nemuri murmured thoughtfully. "It screwed over schools all across the country, didn't it? I remember my cousin was really upset because that was the year he graduated middle school. I think they just recycled some of the photos from the previous year for individual pictures, but they lost most of the special class photos."

"That is correct," Nezu confirmed with a nod. "Midoriya's elementary school opted to publish a special edition just for the graduating class rather than retake all of the photographs."

"At least we can probably rule out sabotage in _that_ case," Kan muttered, leaning back in his seat with a frown. "It doesn't help us much now, though."

"What about the police investigation?" Hizashi piped up. The discussion seemed to have helped assuage his initial bad mood, the blond's eyes looking a bit more lively as he focused on Nezu. "You said he vanished when he was eight. Even if his parents were dead, there's no way they wouldn't investigate it. He had to at _least_ be staying with a foster family, right? Or have other relatives?"

"Yes, well, that's where things get complicated." Nezu's smile faded, invoking a sense of foreboding among the gathered former teachers. "Neither of his parents had any living relatives beyond some distant cousins on his mother's side, all of whom declined to take custody of him. Midoriya-kun was placed with some family friends, the Bakugou family, ostensibly until more permanent arrangements could be made. He ran away two months later, taking with him the only recent photos he had of himself.

"That same day," he continued, giving them all a pointed look, "his family's apartment complex _coincidentally_ caught fire and burnt down, destroying nearly all other remaining photos. The only recent photo the Bakugous could present the police is the _other_ one on the screen."

A brief silence fell after he finished. "What," Nemuri said flatly, voicing the sentiments of everyone in the room.

"Yeah, no, this is definitely suspicious," Snipe declared with a snort. "Even if he's not the Izuku we're looking for, there's _definitely_ something up with this."

"So how'd he end up with the Alliance, then?" Power Loader asked. "It sounds like they either targeted him specifically, or just picked him off the street."

"But if he got picked up back then, it doesn't make sense he's never appeared until last year," Kan muttered. "The kid would be fifteen or sixteen by now, and the Alliance definitely has members who're younger than that."

Nemuri hummed as she listened to the idle speculation of her colleagues, turning over the information in her head. "Maybe his Quirk is something more suited for behind the scenes? Like an intelligence or foresight Quirk?"

There was a distinct pause after her question, Nezu and Ectoplasm exchanging knowing glances that made her want to groan. Dammit, whatever they had to say would _not_ be good. "Yes, about his Quirk," their former principal began carefully.

"He doesn't have one," Ectoplasm finished dryly.

Dead. Silence.

"...He _what_," Snipe deadpanned.

"According to all records Midoriya Izuku is, in fact, Quirkless," Nezu confirmed with a nod. "In fact, it seems he experienced a good deal of bullying for it. If he _does_ have a Quirk, he is a remarkably late bloomer, and a rare one with the extra toe joint."

"The hell?" Hizashi blurted, slamming his hands on the table as he rose. "You mean the Alliance took in someone _Quirkless_!? Why would they do that?" His voice held no derision towards the boy's apparent Quirkless status, just mere incredulity at the notion which Nemuri shared. After all, what use could a group of _villains_ have for a traumatized eight-year-old orphan with no obvious skills they could exploit?

"We... honestly do not know," Nezu admitted, and now he sounded almost _sheepish_. "Our limited interrogations of captured Alliance members _have_ confirmed Shigaraki is highly protective of him though, as he always made a point to keep Izuku away from business deals and threaten new members to stay away. Him being Quirkless may at least explain that attitude. Just not _why_ Shigaraki cares for him so deeply."

"My money's on Shigaraki just being impulsive," Power Loader offered almost lazily. "He would've still been an actual _child_ if he'd grabbed the kid back then. He could have found him in the park and decided to just take him back like a stray puppy."

"That's one hell of a start to his villain career," Kan grumbled under his breath. "Kidnapping a Quirkless kid. Seriously, what's the angle?"

As the staff began debating the new information Nemuri just sank into her seat with a sigh, staring down at the table. Her eyes flitted to Hizashi as he vigorously voiced his own thoughts, feeling a pang of relief at the burst of energy. It had been a while since she'd seen him so worked up, usually he spent the meetings in gloomy silence.

_I really need to see him more,_ she thought guiltily. Being busy with work was no excuse to not see one of her best friends, especially after everything that had happened. Her gaze trailed to the empty chair pushed against the wall behind where Ectoplasm now sat, a pang of grief twisting in her chest.

It had now been nearly six months since Aizawa Shouta had disappeared.


	11. Chapter 11: Week 2 Start!

Chapter 11

.::Week 2 Start!::.

"But _whyyyy_?"

"Because it's too suspicious if we both stop going."

"But I hate school! Why can't _you_ go?"

"Because Yaomomo will find me and figure out something's wrong. Now suck it up and get to class." With that Jirou hung up, and Denki moaned mournfully as he lowered his cell phone and shoved it into his pocket. Next to him Hatsume clapped a hand onto his shoulder, making him jump and look back at her.

"Don't sweat it, Battery-kun!" she chirped. "You fail all your classes anyway, so it's not like you not understanding anything will be suspicious!" He just glowered at her sullenly, too grumpy to respond as she flounced away towards the school building. He grimaced as he gazed up at it, tugging at the hem of his dark blue sweater uncomfortably. And to think, he could be testing out their new gear right now.

The previous night he and Jirou had decided that it would be too suspicious if they both randomly stopped going to school and a pair of vigilantes with Quirks similar to theirs showed up a few days later. Because Yaomomo was likely to search out Jirou to question her and recognize something was wrong, it fell to Denki to go to school, removing the one _good_ thing about being trapped in this crazy alternate dimension.

In order to successfully pull off the ruse they'd had to recruit Hatsume as a guide in navigating the school. They came up with a story to tell her that Denki had short-circuited so hard recently that it screwed with his overall memories, using it to also explain why Jirou had been at his place. Denki still didn't know if he should be offended by how easily she accepted the explanation or not.

_Hopefully other people will buy it too,_ he thought with a sigh. From what Hatsume said he had a pretty large friend group. His cell phone had enough conversations to figure out his relationships with most of his classmates, but he didn't have faces to go with the names. For some reason people seemed to hate sending selfies here. Hatsume would be absolutely no help there—he didn't even know if she remembered _his_ name given she just called him Battery-kun all the time—so he was on his own with that.

Denki had already resigned himself to the fact that he would screw up with the first person to call his name. With luck they'd also buy the short-circuit explanation they gave Hatsume, and could help him identify all his other classmates. They'd rather not broadcast the story too widely since it would be pretty easy for it to fall apart if questioned deeply enough, but they couldn't think of a better solution.

_And I thought Mondays sucked at UA_, he thought glumly.

"Kaminari?" Speak of the devil, looks like it was time to put the plan in action. He frowned, turning to face the stranger... only for it to _not_ be a stranger.

"Yaomomo?" he blurted without thinking. Yaoyorozu frowned, folding her arms as she looked at him.

"Yaomomo?" she repeated, sounding faintly confused. Denki winced, quickly looking away with a sheepish laugh.

"Uh, s-sorry! Yaoyorozu-san, I mean. Sorry, I don't know why I called you that, haha..." He trailed off into half-hearted laughter, all too aware of her eyes boring into him as he internally screamed. _How the hell did they not see this as a possibility!?_ Shoving down the rising bubble of panic, he turned back to her with a grin and quickly said, "A-anyways, did you need something?"

She frowned, still looking a bit suspicious, but didn't press the point. "You were gone all last week. Are you alright?"

"You noticed?" Denki asked, not bothering to hide his surprise. It was normal he'd be surprised, right? It's not like he had her phone number in his phone, so they probably weren't friends or anything. _Right?_

Yaoyorozu didn't respond right away, and he felt a brief spike of panic of _crap he messed up_ before she spoke. "I'm the class representative," she murmured, glancing away and looking almost nervous as her fingers played with the hem of her sweater. "It feels like it's part of my job to pay attention to when my classmates are absent."

Oh. _Oh._ "Oh, yeah. I guess so," he agreed with a slow nod. So she was the class rep here? It made sense, she did have the highest grades even back at UA and made an awesome vice rep.

"Besides, you're the bottom of the class," she added, looking back to him with a stern frown. "Mori-sensei told me to make sure you're caught up on everything you missed. Which won't be easy, since you missed almost an entire week."

Denki flinched at the bluntness of her tone, feeling like she'd hit him over the head with a textbook. "Ack! S-sorry!"

"And where were you?" Yaoyorozu continued. "Mori-sensei said you never gave the school a proper explanation for why you called out every day."

Another wince. Denki sucked on the inside of his cheek as he scratched the back of his head, openly grimacing. "My, uh, Quirk kinda short-circuited," he mumbled half-heartedly. "It, uh, kinda messed with my immune system so I got, like, a super-bad cold, I guess...?" His words sounded weak and uncertain even to his own ears, and his grimace grew as he hastily continued, "B-but I'm better now! Mostly. Head's still kinda woozy though, so if I act weird don't think too hard on it."

...Yeah, he did not blame Yaoyorozu for that doubtful look she gave him. He inwardly groaned, preparing himself for a lecture and more questions when suddenly someone grabbed his arm. He jumped and whirled to find Hatsume next to him, that same static grin on her face. Denki never thought he'd be happy to see the psychotic inventor, but here he was, feeling a swell of relief as he looked upon his savior.

"Battery-kun, come on, we still have fifteen minutes before first period! That's enough time to drop by the science lab and test one of my babies!"

Never mind, he'd rather be interrogated by Yaoyorozu.

As Hatsume began dragging him off he twisted to look over his shoulder at his classmate, mouthing a silent, "_Help me,_" as he tried to wrench free. Alas, Yaoyorozu held no mercy towards his plight, only offering him a sympathetic smile and a half-hearted wave. Groaning, Denki turned forward and hung his head, resigning himself to being used to test yet another of Hatsume's inventions. Hopefully this one wouldn't explode...

As the pair disappeared into the building Momo let her smile slip away, replaced by a serious frown. Kaminari was hiding something, anyone could tell that—and on top of that, he'd disappeared from school the exact same day Kyouka did.

Biting her lip, she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. '_Kaminari showed up today. He's hiding something and acting suspicious. Still no sign of Kyouka._'

Thankfully she didn't have to wait long for the reply. '_Do you think there's a connection?_' She wavered a bit as she saw it, hesitating to answer.

'_I don't know yet, but I think maybe? He said he had Quirk-related issues too._'

There was a long pause, but then, '_You should trust your instincts, Your gut feelings tend to be right more often than not._' A brief wave of relief washed over her, her mouth quirking into a small smile as she felt a small boost to her confidence. The smile quickly faded as another text came in though, her mood instantly sobering. '_It's been a week since you last saw her, so I think it's safe to assume *something's* going on._'

Her fingers clutched her phone tighter as she read it, her thoughts trailing to her best friend. Momo _still_ hadn't heard anything from Kyouka since she disappeared, save for that brief text about her Quirk acting up. Momo _knew_ she'd read most of the other texts—she used a messaging app that showed read receipts—so the total silence on Kyouka's end didn't sit right with her.

And now Kaminari shows up acting suspiciously after disappearing the same day Kyouka did?

Something was going on, and Momo was determined to find out what.

(Please, just let Kyouka be _safe_.)

* * *

Monday morning found Ochaco on her bed staring at her newly created FacePage profile, her body curled protectively around the phone as if to hide it from prying eyes. As far as she'd been able to tell she'd had no FacePage profile in this world, her parents likely deeming it "too risky" given their family's status. Creating an account made her feel guilty, like she'd broken some sort of unspoken rule in the household, but she'd seen no other choice.

_It's for the greater good,_ she reminded herself as she typed her classmates' names in the search bar. Although Ochaco had no idea how she'd gotten into this alternate world, she didn't believe for a minute she was the only one from Class 1-A in this situation. Or at the very least, she didn't _want_ to believe it.

These past seven days had been the loneliest of her life. After getting used to living with all of her classmates in the dorms at UA, waking up in a world where she lived with her parents and only her dad's employees and Suimin-sensei for company left her with an aching sense of isolation. It felt suffocating, not knowing if any of her friends might be here too or if she really _was_ alone in this strange world.

But more than that, she just wanted to talk to someone her own age.

_Tsuyu, Asui, Tsu-chan, Froppy, Frogger... None of them are her. _She frowned as she tried any variation of her friend's name, finding nothing resembling it. Finding people's profiles on FacePage was hard when everyone used fake usernames. She'd already tried entering variations of Izuku, Midoriya and Deku, then Tenya, Iida and even Engine, but no dice. She'd hoped Tsuyu would be easier to find since her Quirk would make for plenty of potential nicknames, but "frog" turned out to be just too broad.

Biting her lip, she mentally reviewed her classmates for who to search next. Some, like Todoroki or Shouji, didn't seem like they'd use social media at all. _I don't think anyone will use their actual names, so I guess I'll try their Hero Names first,_ she decided. Typing in the first one to pop into her head, a string of results quickly showed up and she scrolled down the list only to pause as one profile picture caught her eye.

Ochaco bolted upright instantly, clutching at her phone tightly as she pulled it closer to her face. A pink-tinted alien with a messily drawn crown stared up at her from a blue and purple camouflage-pattern background, the name "Alien_Queen_Pink" next to it. _Could it be?_ Clicking the profile, she saw it had been created just the previous day, most of the fields bare with only one status update:

_'The Glorious Alien Queen Pinkie is now online and ready for friends!'_

"Ashido?" she breathed to herself.

At that moment someone knocked on her door, making her jolt with a yelp and nearly drop the phone. Fumbling to keep it from following, she quickly jabbed the "send friend request" button and exited out of the browser just as her mother opened the door, a warm smile on her face.

"Ochaco, dear, Suimin-san is here," she told her.

"Suimin-sensei?" Ochaco repeated blankly. So far she had only seen her tutor when she'd go to construction sites with her dad. Today he'd left her at home though since they didn't have any work she could specifically help with; he preferred not to take her to work too often, to avoid drawing attention to her and her Quirk. On those days she usually just had homework to do on her own, so why was Suimin here now?

Seeing her obvious confusion, her mother's smile softened. "Don't you remember? She promised to take you shopping today for doing well on that test last week."

Recognition clicked and Ochaco bolted upright, her eyes widening. "Oh! Right! I totally forgot!" She remembered Suimin offering a chance to go shopping as a reward if she did well, but it hadn't really stuck out to her at the time. The test had been really easy since they'd _just_ covered the material at UA before she woke up here, so she hadn't really thought it deserved any special reward. Apparently Suimin disagreed though, not that Ochaco would complain. She'd take any chance to get out of the house.

Jumping off her bed, Ochaco quickly ran to her dresser to fling open the drawers and root around for clothes. She hadn't bothered changing out of her pajamas yet, and if she was going into public she wanted to look cute! Behind her she could hear her mom chuckle, clearly amused. "Just come on down whenever you're ready, there's no rush."

"Got it, mom!" Ochaco called, not bothering to look back as she lifted up a cute pink top with lacy sleeves. She heard her mom chuckle again before the door closed, and Ochaco's face lit up with a beaming smile as she held the shirt against her body in front of her mirror. Shirt decided, now onto some cute bottoms!

As she began looking for something fitting for the chilly weather she heard her phone ding from the bed, making her jump. Dropping the shirt onto the dresser she scurried over to check it and found a notification from the FacePage site saying her friend request had been accepted.

_Oops, I should probably mute that,_ she thought sheepishly. She hadn't been outright told she couldn't use the site, but she'd rather not risk her family finding out and banning her. As she went to her settings to mute the notifications another one popped up, this time about a waiting message. Surprised, she quickly silenced the notices before switching to the browser, finding the messenger already open.

'_Hi Infinity_Girl_8! Thanks for the request! I can't really talk now because I'm at school (bleh!) but I couldn't wait all day! Your name is so cool! Where'd you come up with it?_'

A small smile touched Ochaco's lips, her fingers curling around the phone even as her mind buzzed nervously. For the first time since waking up in this world, she felt a bit of genuine hope that maybe she wasn't quite so alone here after all.

* * *

Perks of being a villain: they can do whatever they want.

Tomura really liked that part of being a villain. The law was so pesky and annoying at times, limiting people's usage of their Quirks and insisting they pay for _everything_. Just look at those "high-end" fashion shops. Fifty thousand yen for a shirt? They didn't even give any sort of status buffs to defense or agility or anything, they just _looked_ cool! Given how easily his clothes disintegrated with a single distracted touch, he saw no point in spending exorbitant amounts of money on clothing.

But of course, _some_ people didn't care how stupid some laws were.

"_And in other news, today an attempted robbery at the local bank was stopped by the Pro Hero Ingenium..._"

Tomura scowled as he jabbed the power button on the remote, silencing the TV a little less violently than he'd like. The bank robbery hadn't been part of the _main_ story; it had been a side quest, something to get all the annoying mob NPCs in his party to stop complaining about having nothing to do. He hadn't participated in any way, just assigned the job and let them go.

But the fact it had been foiled at all irritated him.

His fingers itched to scratch at his neck, to dig his nails into the skin and peel it away bit by bit, but he forced himself to abstain if only because Aiko would get annoyed. The woman currently sat at the bar next to him, idly sipping from a glass while he glowered at the now-dim screen. "Thank you for not destroying the TV," she commented. "Replacing them is a pain."

"You don't even live here," he scoffed.

"And yet I end up being the errand girl more often than not," she replied, rolling her eyes. She set down her drink and produced an envelope from thin air, sliding it along the counter towards him. "Here's the map of that place you wanted. Pretty standard layout, and none of them have Quirks that can change it up. Should be pretty cut and dry. Might want to hurry though, I think a bunch of heroes have their eye on it too."

"Thanks," he grunted, pushing the envelope to aside to review with the others later as he eyed her. "You not interested in joining?"

"Not this time," she responded with a light shrug. "Like I said, this group's on the heroes' radar, and I'd rather not risk running into anyone I know."

Tomura scoffed, the urge to scratch his neck growing. "You haven't seen any of them in years. And don't you wear a mask anyway?"

"Still too much of a risk for my tastes," Aiko deflected as she got up. "My usual goggles are out of commission, and the only spares will just get me a lot more questions and scrutiny than usual. I prefer to stay off the radar as much as possible." Tomura narrowed his eyes, not buying the excuse about her goggles for one second, but he decided not to call her out. Aiko was by far one of the most finicky NPCs of all in his party, but also easily the most game-breaking.

Their relationship points might tip things in the Alliance's favor _now_, but if he ever pissed her off enough she'd either drop them entirely or become the worst final boss ever. At least she wouldn't join the heroes—her morality meter tipped too much to the dark end to ever rise above neutral at best—but she could still easily wipe them out.

"Leaving already?" he asked instead.

"I'd love to stay and spend time with you and Izun, but I've got some stuff to do today," she responded with a light shrug. "Trafficking rings to track and all that. Have fun with the raid or whatever." Tomura just grunted, not even bothering to watch as she left. With Aiko gone the bar was left empty once more, and it didn't take long for his thoughts to drift back to his irritation at the failed bank robbery.

Ingenium wasn't even a high-level boss. All his stat points had been put into speed; he didn't even have a good base defense, just buffs from his armor. They could just trip him with a tripwire, and then Tomura could slap the back of his head and disintegrate the helmet. It'd only take one more touch to dissolve the back of his skull. Easy. Really, he was so low-level he was barely worth the EXP.

Tomura might go out of his way to take care of him now though, just to make up for his fallen party members' failure. It wouldn't do to let their loss cause a hit to his _own_ reputation points, he'd been steadily building them for years even before the Alliance made its public debut. After some thought he dismissed the idea though; he didn't want to risk potentially triggering a main story event and up the overall difficulty.

Speed-running this wasn't an option. Tomura didn't really care for speed runs anyway, a lot of them involved breaking the game with glitches to skip over parts of the story and levels. Skipping over levels meant losing crucial EXP, and they'd get no spare lives if they messed up, so for now he'd just have to occupy himself with side quests while waiting for the rest of his party to level up appropriately. Maybe try to get Aiko to join up more actively, or try to recruit some new party members.

The thought made him pause. _New party members, huh..._ That reminded him of the two brats Izuku had become so interested in—and by extension, Izuku himself.

Izuku was different from the rest of his party. He didn't directly contribute any skills like everyone else, or serve any support role like healing or item storage. By gameplay standards he was more like an NPC or a "pet," except calling Izuku a "pet" grated on his nerves. Maybe a mascot? No, that still irritated him. Little brother? Yeah, that worked. Plenty of games had a younger sibling NPC who served to provide incentive to players to complete an objective, and Izuku definitely filled that role.

Izuku had been cursed with the permanent affliction and title of "_Quirkless_". Society spurned him for a default status condition beyond his control, to the point it didn't care when he disappeared. Tomura had seen how nervous and shy the boy had been when they first met, how little confidence he had in himself. For years, the only time he _really_ showed confidence was when he spoke about Pro Heroes and their Quirks.

Izuku epitomized the injustice of the hero system. After being casted to the bottom of the NPC hierarchy with the lowest base-reputation possible, he became obsessed with Quirks—the source of his troubles, something forever out of his reach—and by extension, he became obsessed with _heroes_. Heroes were the epitome of Quirks, treated as celebrities by everyone. Izuku practically worshipped the ground they walked on, and even though he'd toned it down over the years he still had a few he liked enough to ask Tomura _please don't kill this one, they're one of my favorites_.

The praise and admiration was irritating, but Tomura could let it slide. As long as he kept Izuku away from the _actual_ heroes they captured, it was easy enough to ignore his obsession with them. In any event, Izuku might not be the most _critical_ member of the party—he might even be a detriment at times thanks to his unfortunate affliction, especially since those _episodes_ started—but he was definitely Tomura's favorite.

Izuku _was_ his little brother after all, even if not by blood. They might have their differences, but plenty of brothers in games were polar opposites. That didn't make their interactions any less satisfying though, if anything it made the cut scenes that much more poignant. Tomura had even been working on a side quest in the background to boost his relationship points with Izuku further, assuming it hadn't been maxed out already.

Come to think of it, Tomura hadn't spent much time with Izuku lately.

He should fix that.

* * *

**This is probably the most eventful transitional chapter I've ever written. ****Uraraka has found Ashido's profile, Denki goes back to school, and Aiko appears for like two minutes. Still no news on Aizawa.**

**Question for next time: Who do you think will be the first dimensional strays to actually meet?**


	12. Chapter 12: An Unforgettable Reunion

Chapter 12

.::An Unforgettable Reunion::.

"Kacchan, _please_?" Izuku made the biggest puppy eyes possible at his childhood friend, not missing the way the blond's left eye twitched even as he steadily avoided looking at him.

"No," he grit out, scowling at the wall.

"But you're so _smart_!" Bakugou's eye twitched again at the blatant flattery, his scowl growing worse as his gaze finally flitted towards him.

"Why the hell do you even have math homework?" he demanded, sounding almost incredulous beneath all the anger. Izuku offered a half-hearted shrug, glancing down at the bundle of papers in his hands.

"Just because I live with villains doesn't mean they don't care about my education," he said. "Kurogiri is _really_ serious about making sure I keep up with my grade level."

"What would you even use it for!? Do you plan to apply for a job someday? You're registered as _missing_, Deku! How would that even _work_?"

"I don't know, but right now I mainly don't want to upset Kurogiri by slacking off. He's kinda terrifying about it." Izuku grimaced as he rubbed the back of his neck, and he saw Bakugou's expression soften a bit. Just a little. Emboldened by the sign of leeway, he hesitantly added, "Also, I figure this is at least better than doing nothing...?"

That seemed to break down the last of Bakugou's resistance. The blond still scowled but the anger in his red eyes burnt out, replaced by exasperated irritation and acceptance. "Ugh, fine. Sit down so we can go over it." Izuku flashed a grateful smile as he plopped on the bed next to his old friend, rifling through the papers to find a good worksheet to start with. He didn't _really_ need help with it, but he figured if he had to do it anyway he might as well use it as an excuse to spend more time with him.

Honestly, he'd been just as surprised as Bakugou that he still had schoolwork despite being the ward of a bunch of villains, even if it was a lot more casual than the organized curriculum at UA. He'd noticed textbooks on his bookshelf, but it hadn't really clicked he was actively _using_ them. Then yesterday Kurogiri had randomly warped into his bedroom and dropped off a bunch of workbooks with firm orders to get to work.

"_I've permitted a break given the circumstances, but that time has passed,_" the misty man had told him. "_You may not be able to acquire a _formal_ diploma, but there is no point allowing your mind to rot. I expect you to finish this by the end of the week._" That had been all he'd said before leaving Izuku just sitting at his desk in shock. On the bright side, the whole thing had been so bizarre and abrupt he hadn't even had to pretend to be calm.

It was weird to realize that the villains valued his education, even if it might just be Kurogiri. Something told him most of them really didn't care about schoolwork. Shigaraki didn't really seem like he'd be patient enough to sit through most homeschooling, and he knew that Toga and Mustard—the two closest to his age—didn't bother with it. Plus, like Bakugou said, it wasn't like he could just go out and apply for a job. Unless they created a fake identity for him, which... they might, but not important right now.

According to Seiko, he was mostly expected to teach himself using books and other resources at this point. Kurogiri only reviewed his work once he finished it or if he specifically asked for help, which was what gave him the idea to ask Bakugou to tutor him in math. Asking him was weird, especially when Izuku didn't need it, but he needed any opening he could get to build up a trust between them.

Right now, Bakugou was one of Izuku's only potential allies in this place—in this _world_—but as it stood he couldn't actually _work_ with him. The blond still regarded him with heavy disdain and tolerated his presence out of necessity more than anything. If Izuku tried to tell him about an escape plan or offer an alliance, he might just explode and draw attention.

It sucked and made him anxious, but he'd have to take his time to build up _some_ trust. He had the same issue with Shinsou, who he also planned to ask for homework help after this. He'd visited the purple-haired boy for hours on end since learning of his presence, trying to make up for lost time. Izuku _still_ felt horrible for not realizing he was there sooner, especially after Shinsou had to comfort _him_ that first day when the brainwasher was the real (and _literal_) victim here.

Things between them were still far too tense, Shinsou obviously even more wary of his motivations than Bakugou. It didn't help that Izuku had to watch his words around the other boy because he wasn't supposed to know Shinsou's name beyond his vigilante moniker "Hijack". If he ever slipped, Shinsou would probably panic since _no one_ knew his real name. It hurt seeing the suspicion in his eyes, but Izuku couldn't blame him. Shinsou had no reason to trust him, not when Izuku was so friendly with the people _literally holding him prisoner_.

Just. Everything was a mess here, and Izuku _really_ needed some allies. At least he'd gotten confirmation from Seiko no one else was locked up right now, so for now he could focus on getting Bakugou to open up a little more.

They spent about half an hour going over the math homework, Izuku feigning confusion at some of the more complicated problems. At several points he got the sense Bakugou saw through the façade and didn't actually need help, but the blond never called him out on it. It made Izuku think he really _was_ just that bored, which in turn made him feel even more guilty. He couldn't get Bakugou out of there soon enough.

They'd gotten halfway through the third worksheet when the slat on the door suddenly slid open, catching them both off-guard. Izuku's heart leapt up his throat as he spied red eyes peering into the room between silvery-blue bangs, and a moment later the slat slammed shut followed by the door opening. Even though Izuku recognized those eyes he still couldn't help the pang of instinctive dread when Shigaraki poked his head into the room, his cracked lips spreading into a grin.

"Izu, I've been looking for you," he declared, sounding eerily giddy. It took all of his control to not show the visceral sense of terror at hearing the League of Villains' leader sounding _happy_, a combination he had come to associate with imminent danger. _This Shigaraki doesn't hate you,_ he reminded himself.

That did not apply to Bakugou though. "What do you want?" he hissed, shrinking back against the wall as he bared his teeth in a snarl. Izuku could feel the blond trembling beside him, his eyes dilated in what he recognized to be apprehension even as Bakugou tried to mask it by glaring at Shigaraki. The villain scoffed as he regarded him, clearly unimpressed by the intimidating front he put up.

"Shut up, shitty NPC," he said gruffly. "I'm here for Izuku, not you." He crossed the room to grab Izuku's wrist, his pinkie finger pointedly hovering above his skin as he pulled the green-haired boy to his feet. "Come on, I'm _bored_."

"W-what?" Izuku stammered, hoping his wince and stutter would be construed as surprise more than fear. "But, T-Tomura-nii—" He nearly stumbled on the name, the overly friendly manner of addressing his enemy _still_ feeling alien and unfamiliar, "—I-I have homework. Kurogiri will get mad if I put it off..." He tossed a helpless look at the papers in question, now scattered on the bed around Bakugou in their surprise at the sudden visitor.

"Homework is boring," Shigaraki deadpanned. Which, Izuku couldn't argue with. "You can take a day off. I want to hang out with you." His voice held a note of finality usually associated with stubborn toddlers rather than the menacing leader of one of the most notorious villain organizations in existence. Izuku shot a helpless look at Bakugou, as if asking for him to do _something_—what, exactly, he didn't know—but the blond just scoffed and averted his eyes.

"Whatever," he grumbled. "Not like you have a deadline for this shit, right?" It was probably as close to a dismissal as Izuku would get in this situation.

"Let's go," Shigaraki said, already heading towards the door. Izuku bit his lip, and mouthed a silent '_sorry_' to Bakugou before scurrying after the older male. He didn't dare look back as the door closed behind them.

"So what are we doing?" he asked Shigaraki as he followed the older male down the hall. "Playing another game?" Surprisingly he hadn't spent much "quality time" with Shigaraki yet beyond that movie marathon that first day, but the majority of their interactions involved playing video games. It was its own kind of nerve-wracking, because _what if Shigaraki noticed he didn't remember how to play them and figured out he's lying,_ but so far Shigaraki hadn't commented on a sudden decrease in gaming skill. It made him wonder if maybe he just sucked at them in general.

"Our collection's too stale," Shigaraki scoffed. "We're going to get new ones."

"Oh, alright," Izuku said with a nod, and then stopped as the words registered. "Wait, how?" Shigaraki paused, turning to peer at him over his shoulder.

"We're going shopping, duh," he said, rolling his eyes, and turned forward once more. Izuku blinked, his legs moving mechanically to follow him as his mind went nearly blank. For the first time since waking up in this world, he'd be going outside. Despite the twist of anxiety in his gut, the prospect actually excited him a little bit. He wondered what it'd be like.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Izuku discovered the outside world was actually pretty underwhelming.

_ What did I expect, a post-apocalyptic wasteland?_ he thought sarcastically as he followed Shigaraki down the street. Kurogiri had warped them to an alley near a strip mall, the two casually sauntering past the thin trickle of shoppers lining the sidewalks. After the initial joyful surge of '_fresh air, at last!_', the novelty of going outside had quickly worn off as he took in all the differences—or lack thereof, as the case happened to be.

The fact was, for all the major societal upheavals from Izuku's world regarding heroes and villains, on the superficial level they were still pretty similar. He remained quiet as he looked around, just taking in the scenery. The street wasn't one he'd visited in the past so he couldn't identify any _significant_ differences, but it seemed like any other strip mall he'd visited. Given it was a Monday afternoon most people were at work or school, so there wasn't much traffic aside from a few stray shoppers.

Ahead of him Shigaraki maintained a casual saunter, his hood pulled over his hair and a scarf looped around his mouth. Izuku himself had simply stuffed his hair under a blue beanie and left it at that. While the mysterious "hero alliance" knew about him, he apparently wasn't so famous that he needed to fully disguise his face in public. No one paid either of them any mind, save for a little toddler girl he saw glance at him and blush before ducking behind her mother's leg.

Overall, shopping with Shigaraki was surprisingly mundane. In part because they were actually _shopping_ for games.

"Yo, Shiro!" greeted the clerk when they entered the game store. Shigaraki huffed and grumbled as he stalked towards one of the shelves, largely ignoring the greeting, while Izuku just stopped in the doorway and stared. The clerk didn't seem fazed by the cool reaction, instead smirking to himself as if satisfied before turning his attention to Izuku. "Well, this is a rare sight. Been a while since Shiro brought you along, kid."

"Uh, yeah. Just... been busy, I guess." Internally Izuku was freaking out and trying to process this scene and all the subsequent implications. The clerk clearly knew Tomura, if not by actual name then some nickname, which meant some degree of familiarity. He also knew Izuku to some extent and associated him with Shigaraki.

The only explanations were the clerk either had some sort of phenomenal memory, maybe a memory-enhancing Quirk... or Shigaraki was a regular here.

_But that means he actually _buys_ games, doesn't he?_ Izuku thought in mild shock as he tried not to gape _too_ openly at Shigaraki's back. Somehow, that revelation was one of the more shocking ones since waking up in this world. Shigaraki was a villain with the temperament of a spoiled child after all; the idea of him willingly _paying_ for games instead of just taking them boggled his mind.

Shigaraki made a thoughtful hum as he pulled one case off the wall, glancing at the clerk. "Hey, is this one actually any good?"

"Story's good, but it's got pretty shit controls. Movement's all jittery and the hit boxes are way too small. Pretty sure the dev company bribed the reviewers to get better scores. I'd recommend Automata if you want something similar that actually plays well."

"I already got that one."

"Ah, you did? Huh. Then maybe Firefly Blade?"

As the two launched into a casual banter about recommendations Izuku found it increasingly harder _not_ to gawk at them. Shigaraki was still sour and overall snippy with the clerk, but the overall tone of the conversation was so _casual_ and _normal_ it sort of broke his brain. He didn't even know the man could talk to someone normally.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore and knew he needed to get out before his cover slipped. "Um, sorry to interrupt, but I'm, uh, kinda bored," he stammered out hastily. "Do you mind if I check out some of the other stores?"

"Sure, yeah, keep your phone on you. I'll grab you when I'm done." Shigaraki waved him off dismissively, not really turning his attention away from his discussion with the clerk. The fact he agreed at all surprised Izuku, expecting him to want to keep a close eye on him, and he quickly slipped out before the man could potentially change his mind.

Once outside he breathed a small sigh and began strolling along the sidewalk, glancing at the windows of the neighboring stores. He didn't pay much attention to their contents, seeing as he had no money on himself to actually _buy_ anything, and instead let his mind wander. Did Shigaraki let him go out alone because he'd been distracted, or was he not that worried? Had Izuku _always_ been allowed to leave the base? Had he stayed cooped up for the past seven days for no reason at all?

As he mused over the potential implications he noted movement from the corner of his eye and glanced over only to jump as he saw Seiko walking next to him. "Wha—Seiko—when?" he sputtered, glancing around. Where had she _come_ from!?

"Are you just realizing you're not under constant house arrest?" she guessed, emotionless as ever. Izuku just gawked at her, still a little overwhelmed by her sudden appearance and nonchalance about, well, _everything_. After a few moments though he ducked his head and nodded sheepishly.

"In my defense, my room doesn't have windows," he muttered embarrassedly. It sometimes felt more like a cell than the _actual_ prison cells, closer to Shinsou's fully furnished room in that regard. Unlike Shinsou's room though, Izuku wasn't locked in at all times.

Seiko gave a noncommittal hum. "You're free to go anywhere as long as you tell Kurogiri beforehand. They prefer not to let you walk through the neighborhood around the base alone, so he warps you to a safer part of town instead."

"I guess I'll still have to tell them where I'm going and why, right?" he mumbled, but to his surprise Seiko shook her head.

"No. As long as you have your phone and call Kurogiri to return you before dark, you're free to do as you please. You've proven yourself responsible enough to be trusted to keep a low profile outside of the base." Her eyes flitted towards him, and in their flat, unsettling white depths he thought he spied a faint flicker of amusement. "They give you quite a bit of freedom, Midoriya Izuku."

"I... see." Izuku frowned, a contemplative gleam in his eyes as he turned forward with his head unconsciously ducking down. If Izuku had the freedom to leave as he pleased, that opened up all kinds of possibilities. He could _finally_ start a proper investigation into how he ended up in this world, finally make some progress. Maybe even get in some practice with One For All. As he mulled over it he distantly noted that Seiko melted into the shadows in the corner of his eye, but he paid her departure no mind and continued to focus on what his next step should be.

Caught up in his thoughts, he almost didn't notice the two figures stepping out of a store in front of him, turning to walk the same direction he headed. As he got closer he slowed down slightly to avoid bumping into them, only vaguely registering their conversation as he let his thoughts consume him. "Come on, that skirt was adorable and you know it!" the older woman said. "You should've gotten it!"

"B-but it was so expensive!" a younger voice whined and Izuku froze, his brain grinding to a halt. His head snapped up to see a girl with a puffy-looking brown bob walking ahead of him, waving her hands animatedly at the woman next to her as she stammered, "I mean, there's so many better things to spend money on! Like, I could get _three_ skirts at another store for that price! It felt like such a waste!"

"Being thrifty is good, but you need to spoil yourself sometimes," the dark-haired woman said, turning to look at the girl with a fond smile. "You're a teenage girl, have some fun!" She ruffled the girl's hair as she spoke and skipped ahead with a laugh as the teen squawked in dismay.

"H-hey, don't do that!" The girl turned her head over her shoulder with a small pout, and Izuku's breath caught in his throat as he spied familiar pink circles on her cheeks, small pink pads briefly visible on her fingertips as she tried to fix her hair and eliminating any lingering doubts about her identity. _Uraraka._

As he stared at her in shock Uraraka's eyes flitted his way and she startled, her pout vanishing as she twisted her torso to look back at him. As their eyes met a reverberation of shock ran down his spine, and he thought of all the other familiar eyes he'd seen these past few days. The icy-hot loathing in Kacchan's crimson eyes, the cold disdain in Shinsou's indigo, the bizarre fondness in Shigaraki's red. All so familiar, yet all belonging to strangers.

But in Uraraka's brown eyes he saw something else, something absent from all the other eyes he'd seen.

He saw _recognition_.

"Deku?" she whispered, her voice barely above a breath.

In that moment Izuku felt like a giant weight had been simultaneously wrenched off his chest and lobbed at his gut instead, a tiny gasp slipping out. The edges of his vision blurred as tears formed, his hands trembling at his side as his breath came out in short, shuddering gasps. _She remembers. She recognizes me. She knows me. Not like how everyone else here knows me—she knows _me_._

This wasn't some other Uraraka. This was _his_ Uraraka.

_I'm not alone here._

Time just seemed to disappear as they stared at each other, each coming to the same realization. Tears pricked the corners of Uraraka's own eyes as she turned to face him fully, her cheeks growing pinker. "D-Deku," she started, her voice wobbly, and she stopped and sucked in a big breath. "I-It's you, right? D-Deku?" Seeing her so close to crying made Izuku's own eyes water more, and he quickly wiped it away with his sleeve as he stepped forward.

"I-it is!" he quickly confirmed. "A-and you're—you're Uraraka? _My_ Uraraka?" The question didn't feel necessary, he could tell just by looking at her that she was the Uraraka he'd spent the past several months learning to be a hero with, but even so the feeling of elation when she bobbed her head was still overwhelming, his chest exploding with warmth and relief.

"I'm—we're not alone," she whispered, sniffling as she wiped at her tears with a tiny smile. "I-I'm not the only one...!" Her voice began to crack, the prospect of crying becoming a much more immediate threat.

"Ochaco-chan?" Both teenagers jumped at the voice, Izuku stiffening and Uraraka snapping to stand straight in alarm as he glanced behind her. The woman who'd been walking with Uraraka had stopped and turned to look back at them, her blue eyes glinting with worry behind her glasses. "Ochaco, what's up? Are—wait, are you _crying_?"

Shooting Izuku a briefly panicked look, Uraraka quickly wiped away the last of her tears before turning to the woman with a smile. "S-sorry, Suimin-sensei! I just—I ran into someone familiar and wanted to say hello! Right?" She shot Izuku a smile, her eyes begging him to go along with her, and he quickly bobbed his head in affirmation.

"R-right!" he agreed, turning to the woman with a sheepish smile. "We, uh, used to know each other way back... For a bit..." He trailed off, trying not to wince at how weak that sounded even to his own ears. The woman—Suimin-sensei? Uraraka's _teacher_? Why were they shopping together? Wasn't it a _school day_?—frowned slightly, her eyes narrowing and making him tense.

"Here, I know, let's exchange phone numbers!" Uraraka blurted, spinning to Izuku with a smile as she whipped out her phone. "We can catch up more later!" Her smile was warm and reassuring, filling Izuku with a much-needed sense of familiarity and trust, and he couldn't help but return it.

"Of course!" he agreed as he fumbled for his own phone. "I've got so much to fill you in on—" He stopped mid-sentence, his blood running cold as the reality of his situation suddenly came crashing down on him. Shigaraki. The Villain Alliance. Bakugou and Shinsou.

The memories of the past seven days hit him like a brick, nearly staggering back as his breath hitched. Immediately Uraraka's smile faded, replaced by a wide-eyed look of concern. "Deku? Deku, what's wrong?" Her voice rose towards the end, her alarm leaking through clearly, and Izuku had to suck in a sharp breath as he tried to squash down the rising bubble of panic.

"I-I don't, I can't," he sucked in a sharp breath, blinking and trying to clear his thoughts. "I don't know i-if that's a good idea."

"What? Why not?" He could see the look in her eyes shifting more towards alarm and fear, taking a step closer as she recognized his inherent distress. "Deku, are—are you in danger?"

"No!" he blurted quickly, shaking his head and hands emphatically. "I'm not, I'm fine! B-but, but—" _But no one else is,_ he thought dismally, but the words couldn't form in his throat, too choked by fear and anxiety. "Uraraka, I—I-I—"

"Izu, what are you doing?"

This time Izuku couldn't suppress the flinch when he heard the ever-more familiar voice call out behind them, his stomach lurching with dread as they both turned. Striding towards them was none other than Shigaraki, a plastic bag dangling at his side and his scarf looped around his face and eyes shaded by his hood. "I got the stuff. What's with the NPCs?"

"NPC?" Uraraka mumbled next to him, sounding faintly confused. When Izuku looked at her he saw a blank look in her eyes as she regarded Shigaraki, and his chest tightened in realization. _She doesn't recognize him._ Of course she wouldn't, she'd never spoken to him directly the way Izuku had, would have only seen him from afar at the USJ and at the mall. He didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified by her obliviousness to the imminent danger of the situation.

"Oh, uh, we were just saying hi!" he said, plastering on a nervous smile. "You know, just chatting about this and that. Nothing big." Shigaraki paused a few feet away, his head tilting to the side as he glanced at Uraraka.

"You were talking to a girl?" he muttered lowly, sounding almost contemplative, and a chilly horror crawled down Izuku's spine. _No, no, don't pay attention to her!_

"Izu?" Uraraka mumbled to herself, oblivious to Izuku's growing internal panic, and then _freaking smiled at Shigaraki_. "Oh! You must be really close friends, right?"

"He's my brother," Shigaraki scoffed, and this time Uraraka jolted, whirling to shoot Izuku an open-mouthed look of shock.

"You have a _brother_?" she blurted, and Izuku held back the urge to wince as he nodded.

"Y-yeah, I do," he said, and hastily continued, "A-anyways, it was nice talking to you, but I think we should go home. I still have homework to do, and I think Sh—_Tomu-nii_ wants to play his new games with me first." He turned to Shigaraki with a strained smile, desperate to get him away from Uraraka as soon as possible. From the corner of his eye he noted Uraraka's face scrunch up slightly, obviously trying to place the name, and they needed to get away before she did.

"We need to go too," spoke up Suimin, almost catching him off-guard. The woman appeared behind Uraraka and put a hand on her shoulder, offering her student a small smile. (_Was it just him, or did it look forced?_) "We still have a few places I want to check out before the after-school rush hits."

"O-oh, I see... Um." She frowned, glancing at Izuku with obvious worry. "I-I guess I'll see you around, then?"

_Please, please don't,_ he pleaded mentally. Being around him would put her in danger, and he couldn't put her through that. But externally he merely smiled weakly and nodded. "M-maybe. We'll just have to see, I guess. Bye, Uraraka-san."

With that he turned and quickly scurried over to Shigaraki, trying not to look back at her as he began speed-walking away. The villain's presence provided an ominous shadow as they walked, able to feel Shigaraki looking at him even as Izuku kept his own gaze on his feet. He tried not to pay it any attention, his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

"Do you... _like_ that NPC?" Shigaraki asked slowly, and Izuku nearly stumbled as he sucked in an almost squeaky-sounding breath.

"C-can we talk about something else please!?" he blurted desperately without thinking, inwardly cringing at how blatant his attempt to avoid the subject was. He risked a glance at the older male and found contemplative red eyes peering down at him from beneath the hood, uncomfortably reminding him of another encounter with the man in his own world.

Shigaraki gave a small hum, turning forward with an unreadable look. "I got some good games today. Did you ever play the first Siren's Call with me?"

Izuku relaxed slightly at the topic change, shaking his head. "If I did, I don't really remember," he replied honestly, relieved to be talking about something other than Uraraka. "What's it like?" He paid close attention as Shigaraki launched into a brief description of the game, just relieved to distract him from Uraraka. If all went well, Shigaraki would forget she existed and she'd never be in danger.

Of course, his life could never be that easy though.

* * *

**Last time I asked people to guess the first big meeting. Literally no one on either site guessed it would be Izuku and Ochaco though.**

**This is one of those chapters I've had in mind from the start. Very happy with how it turned out. Yes, Shigaraki buys his games. He might be a villain, but he's also a gamer and he gets that the best way to guarantee his favorite game studios continue to make great games is for them to turn a profit.**

**Question for next time: who do you think will be the next member of Class 1-A to make an appearance?**


	13. Chapter 13: Progress Towards the Future

Chapter 13

.::Progress Towards the Future::.

Day three of searching Odawara for Tokoyami. By now, Shouto might feel very tempted to burn something down if he were more hot-headed and comfortable with the fire half of his Quirk. As it stood, he settled for shooting a frosty glare at his few meager remaining coins as he sat on a park bench contemplating his next move.

His search _should_ have been simple. After thinking it over, Shouto had quickly realized that while Tokoyami might be part of a famous phantom thief duo, his cloak hid all his identifying features, meaning he wouldn't need to hide or disguise himself to go out in public. A boy with a black bird head stood out in a crowd, so theoretically, people should remember seeing him.

Unfortunately, Shouto had failed to take into account that while a bird head _was_ unusual, large-scale mutations like that weren't exactly _rare_. People paid no particular attention to most unique mutations, used to seeing people coming in all sorts of shapes and colors every day. One of the local policemen he saw patrolling had a head shaped like a _kappa_ for crying out loud, complete with green skin and a beak and a little dish for water on top of his head.

In short, in a world of bizarre mutations, Tokoyami really didn't stick out that much. Not unless he did something significant, which obviously he wouldn't seeing as he was likely trying to keep a low profile. Drawing attention to himself would probably go against the script for the sidekick of a nationally wanted villain.

At this point Shouto didn't even know if Tokoyami was actually _in_ Odawara. His speculations could have been totally wrong, or they may have moved their base to another city. Gentle Criminal had a tendency to move on to a new area after so much time passed after all, and the latest string of thefts had been about the regular length. If that was the case he'd need to do some more research at a net cafe, but right now Shouto's funds had reached a critical low.

His stomach released a low growl, making his eyes narrow in irritation. Could he even afford actual food? The little change he had could _probably_ buy him a cheap bento box at a convenience store or some pre-wrapped onigiri, but it wouldn't be too filling and would only last one meal. He needed to be careful about how he spent his remaining money, get something that could last a while. At least he had water handled thanks to his Quirk.

Sighing in quiet frustration, he shoved the change back into his pocket and tugged at the eye patch to make sure it fully covered his scar when he felt something prod his leg. Snapping a startled look downwards, he saw a small gray squirrel tugging at his pant leg, bushy tail curled like a question mark. As he stared at it blankly it seemed to perk up, and it quickly released its grip to nudge a wrapped onigiri towards his foot with its nose.

At that Shouto's eyes went wide, bolting upright as he stared down at the food. "What the," he muttered, bending forward to pick it up. As soon as he did the squirrel turned and scurried away, making Shouto jolt and quickly get to his feet. "Hey, wait—" He stopped himself short, his free hand still reaching for the fleeing rodent as his features contorted with confusion. His mouth thinned as he looked at the wrapped onigiri in his hand, his eyebrows furrowing.

Did... Did a squirrel just give him lunch?

_No,_ he realized suddenly, _it didn't give me lunch. It _delivered_ it._ An admittedly subtle distinction, but still key because if it merely delivered it, then someone had ordered it to do so. The realization had him jerking to stand ramrod straight, his head swiveling to look around the park. Not many people were around, only a woman jogging with a dog in the far distance, but then he saw movement behind a restroom facility across the path. _There._

With speed honed from years of extensive training under his father Shouto surged forward, bolting around the corner almost as fast as lightning to find himself face to face with two people: a girl with green vines for hair and the other possessing a familiar pink, rock-shaped head. _Kouda Kouji._ Shouto had suspected it considering his Quirk, but seeing his quiet classmate still came as a surprise that left him freezing in place.

For a moment they just stared at each other, too shocked to react. Then Kouda released a surprised squeal as he jumped back, waving his hands wildly with frantic whines and whimpers. Shouto faltered at his classmate's reaction, desperately racking his brain on how to react when Kouda's companion spoke up. "Ah, so you noticed us," she commented. "We had hoped our act of charity would go unnoticed, but perhaps it is fate that we meet now."

"Fate?" Shouto repeated, turning to look at her with a puzzled look. As he did he realized that she wasn't _actually_ a stranger, recognizing the vines that constituted her hair from the Sports Festival. She was in Class 1-B, wasn't she? The one who got to the tournament and beat Kaminari. _Shiozaki, if I remember right._

"Pardon our rudeness," she said, offering a serene smile as she folded her hands as if in prayer. "We do not like showing ourselves to strangers openly. You may call me Maria, and my companion Rockfish." _Fake names,_ Shouto noted, and she seemed to pick up on his thoughts as she added, "I apologize for using pseudonyms, but it is safer for us if we do not share our real names. You are the lost lamb Kuroe mentioned, are you not?"

"Kuroe?" The name made Shouto's gaze sharpen, focusing on her intently. He felt highly aware of the flip phone in his pocket, having barely touched it since he'd taken it on Sunday. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd taken it and then kept it, unsure if he could even trust the man. Kuroe had recognized him after all; it could be a trap to lower his guard.

Shiozaki nodded once. "Yes, he is one of our group's most benevolent patrons. He told us a boy with black hair and an eye patch had come to Odawara seeking some unknown goal, and that he would likely be in need of assistance. Rockfish and I have been watching you since early this morning, and we noticed you had not eaten yet today so we decided to anonymously gift you a small meal. W did not expect you to notice us."

"Right," Shouto muttered, eying them warily but letting some of the tension seep from his posture. Kouda's Quirk let him command animals and he remembered his classmate using birds as scouts in past exercises, so it wasn't too strange that he might have used some to follow him. The thought he'd been watched at all without noticing still unsettled him though, his eyes flicking towards the nearby tree line. _Could someone be watching right now?_

For the time being he pushed away the thought as he turned back to Shiozaki, offering a small nod. "I am... not comfortable that I was being watched," he admitted lowly, making Kouda wince and shrink back guiltily. Seeing that Shouto tried to keep his voice more gentle as he added, "But I do appreciate the food. I was just trying to figure out what I could afford, so... thank you." He dipped forward in a bow as he spoke, feeling a bit awkward.

"Please, you do not need to thank us," Shiozaki told him as he straightened, her hands folded in prayer once more. "Performing a good deed and helping a fellow troubled soul is reward enough." Kouda vigorously bobbed his head next to her, still looking nervous and slightly intimidated by Shouto's presence. In turn Shouto gave a single nod, turning his attention back to the onigiri.

"So are you two in the phone Kuroe gave me?" he asked as he tore at the wrapper, and Shiozaki nodded.

"Yes, we are. I am registered under the name 'Maria's Garden Care,' and Rockfish is 'Odawara Wildlife Rescue.' If you require any assistance feel free to call us, though I am more likely to answer than he is." Shouto hummed, taking a bite of the rice ball and chewing carefully for a moment before swallowing.

"Why would you help me?" He didn't mask the suspicion in his gaze as he stared at her, continuing bluntly, "We're strangers. You don't look like you're in good positions either." Both of them had on rather worn-looking clothes. Shiozaki wore a thick red sweater and a long wool skirt that frayed around the hem, along with dirty hiking boots. Kouda meanwhile had on a bulky mustard-colored sweatshirt with several small holes in it and dark jeans, paired with ratty-looking, heavy-duty boots that had mismatched laces.

The vine-haired girl's smile softened slightly, her expression never losing that sense of serenity and quiet dignity. "It is because we are in such poor conditions that we should help one another. We do not know what may haunt you, but we, too, know the difficulties of being cast from your home and forced to fend for yourself. This world is full of too much cruelty, and there is no reason to make it worse."

Her voice carried a note of such strong sincerity that Shouto found it difficult not to believe her, finally allowing himself to relax. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't imagine this overly pious Shiozaki or the timid and kind Kouda to harbor any malevolent intentions, no matter what may have happened to them here.

_They're just runaways,_ he thought. He'd seen some references online to kids with particularly powerful or useful Quirks running away from home in an attempt to protect their families, and Kouda's Anivoice and Shiozaki's Vines both fit those descriptions.

His thoughts wandered to the flip phone in his pocket, and the various unknown contacts it contained. "_It's hard surviving alone out there,_" Kuroe had said cryptically. "_Especially for a kid on the street. Having a network... helps._" A network of runaways? It made sense. If Odawara had avoided a majority of organized villain activity like Kuroe suggested, it would be as good a place to hide as any.

His mind swarmed with the new information as he quietly nibbled at the onigiri, just... thinking. If this network was legitimate, then maybe he could use it to help find Tokoyami. But asking for something with nothing to offer in return—especially something so potentially _dangerous_—left a bad taste in his mouth. Swallowing the rice, he made up his mind and wrapped up the rest for later.

"Thank you, but I don't like leaving favors unpaid," he told Shiozaki. "If you're going to help me, then there should be something I can do to make it even." The least he could do was try to help this group somehow before asking for another favor.

Shiozaki smiled, kind and placid. "If you insist."

* * *

"Alright!" Hatsume said, clapping her hands together with what Kyouka had come to mentally dub her "default" manic smile, "We just need to do some quick last-minute testing, and then you'll be ready to go!"

At the moment the trio stood in the warehouse Hatsume used as her workshop, the pink-haired girl having finished the prototypes for their gear just minutes earlier. It had been surprisingly fast since she'd still had to go to school yesterday and today, but today she'd dragged Kaminari straight to the warehouse after classes with the declaration she'd be done within two hours. That suited Kyouka fine since she'd been dying of boredom while they were at school, having little to do after finishing her online classwork.

Right now the two future vigilantes were standing in front of a mirror, looking over their new costumes. "Wow, Hatsume, you got this done really fast," Kaminari commented as he grinned at his reflection. "I thought it'd take a lot longer, but this stuff looks really cool! You're awesome!"

"Yes, yes, I know, now let's test my babies out!" she said, pushing him towards a target range set near the back of the room.

"Yes ma'am!" he agreed with a bright grin, looking ecstatic as he bounced in his new costume. They'd prioritized sturdiness and speed with its design, getting a black hooded jacket that he wore over a long-sleeved white shirt and black pants and boots. To hide his face and distinctive hair he raised the hood and wore an opaque orange visor and black fabric mask over his mouth, though at the moment he had the mask resting around his neck.

He rounded out the look with bulky electronic gauntlets that doubled as gloves. They didn't work _quite_ like his sharpshooting gear, designed to shoot out slender pins which Hatsume had dubbed "lightning rods" instead of discs to serve as a homing point for his electricity. Beyond that, the fingertips each had small openings for a more _direct_ approach.

"So I just point at people and go 'bang'?" he asked, forming a gun-shape with his index finger and thumb pointed at a wooden board with a target painted on it.

"Pretty much!" Hatsume confirmed with a bob of the head. "They _should_ shoot mostly straight, but without a lightning rod the aim probably won't be as accurate or precise. And _this_ part," she tapped a small box-shaped protrusion on the back of his hands, "will store a charge long-term! Just press your thumb and middle finger together, and it'll prime your gauntlets so you can just slam your hands on someone and zap them without having to use your Quirk!"

"Oh good," Kyouka deadpanned, "Now he won't turn into an even bigger idiot in the middle of a fight."

"Hey!" Kaminari whined, shooting her an offended look. "I'm not _that_ dumb!"

"Last place on finals," she reminded him with a smirk, and Kaminari clamped his mouth shut with a scowl.

Hatsume planted her hands on his shoulders and firmly turned him back towards the target range. "Less talking, more testing!" she sang. Kaminari nodded, his expression smoothing as he raised a hand in a gun-pose to point at the circular wooden board.

"Bang," he said, and then a stream of electricity shot out from his index finger and rippled across the room to hit the target. Its path was wobbly and shaky, arcing wildly as it surged forward, but it remained largely straight and hit the outer ring of the target with a resounding _crack_. The wood didn't break, but small cracks could be seen under scorch marks where the electricity hit. Kaminari huffed, shoulders sagging. "Dang it, I didn't get a bull's-eye."

"I told you, your aim won't be as good without the lightning rods!" Hatsume reminded him. "Those babies are expensive and hard to make though, so you can't just use them all the time! You need to work on your regular aim too!" As she continued lecturing Kaminari on how to best use his new gear Kyouka tuned them out, turning her attention to the mirror to examine her own costume.

Like Kaminari, she also wore a black hooded jacket, along with white amplifier jacks on her hands similar to the ones in her UA costume. Beneath it she wore a light violet dress with a puffy skirt that flared out around her knees to allow for increased mobility, along with dark denim jeans tucked into her chunky speaker boots. They kept with Kaminari's theme by giving her a black visor over her eyes and a white face mask with black starbursts drawn on the right corner below her eye.

The outfit had been designed for practicality first and foremost. Just as Kaminari had said on Saturday, her earphone jacks would be too distinct and identifiable to use openly, so they'd had to get more creative in how they concealed them. Her hood hid the earphone jacks and allow them to snake beneath the sleeves to the amplifier jacks unnoticed. The puffy skirt, meanwhile, would help hide their movement when they slid down to her boots to plug into them.

Overall, the design reminded her a good bit of her actual hero costume, and the same went for Kaminari's. She hoped that if any of their other classmates happened to be here after all, they'd recognize the costumes and track them down. Especially after they added the last touches.

As she stared at her reflection Hatsume suddenly appeared behind her, her yellow eyes seeming to glow as she grinned. "You!" she declared, grabbing Kyouka's shoulders. "It's your turn to show off my new babies!" She dragged Kyouka towards the target range without waiting for a response, and Kyouka frowned as she turned to face it.

Along with the (now-scorched) wooden targets, they'd also set up several stacks of cinder blocks. Kyouka focused on those, extending her earphone jacks to slither down the back of her dress. It felt more than a little weird moving them _under_ clothing and having the fabric rub up against them. She felt a bit of relief when they reached the waist where the skirt flared out, no longer feeling smothered, and from there they plugged into the backs of her boots.

Five seconds later a violent shockwave surged from the speakers, blasting the cinder blocks and sending them toppling.

Next to her Hatsume let out a loud whoop and Kaminari cheered which Kyouka ignored. The range felt shorter than at UA, but the power was decent enough. Twisting her head to peer back at the mirror, she spied a flash of something pale against the backs of her boots and legs, making her frown. "Hey, guys, the jacks stick out against all the black. Any ideas?"

"Uh, maybe we could paint the ends black too?" Kaminari suggested with a frown. "Like, with nail polish or something...? But wait, how would that even work if you stretch them though?"

"This is just Version 1.1!" Hatsume offered enthusiastically. "I can modify it to make a pocket to hide it! In fact, hold on!" She spun around and darted off to a storage shelf next to her work table, rooting around noisily before returning with a small, black tube-shaped object. Crouching next to Kyouka's legs, she quickly stuck it on the back edge of her left boot using sticky tack to hold it in place so the top protruded above it. "Try sliding it in here!"

Kyouka nodded and moved the closest jack to enter the hollow tube, her head twisting to watch her reflection as she did so. It fit fine, the tube maybe a little more roomy than necessary, and its presence diminished the visible amount of skin between the skirt and her boot. She shook her leg a bit to see if the tube would hamper her mobility at all. "It fits, but there's not enough room for me to bend the end to actually plug it into the boot."

"That's because this tube will _be_ the plug!" Hatsume explained as if it were obvious. "I'll add a jack in the bottom that you can plug into just like your gauntlets! And on that note, _gauntlets_!" She grabbed Kyouka's hands as she steered the vigilante back towards the target range, ordering, "Test them, _now_!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kyouka muttered, pulling her earphone jacks out of the boots and back up her dress. They slithered down the sleeves of her jacket next, the movement nearly imperceptible under the black fabric, and plugged into the jacks on the end of the gauntlets without ever showing. With that done, she marched up to a large boulder Hatsume had somehow dragged in (when, why and _how_, she didn't know and didn't _want_ to know) and took a deep breath.

Channeling her heartbeat into the gauntlets, she slammed her palms against the boulder and felt the stone vibrate. Similar to how these boots had a shorter range, the reverberations from the gauntlets were weaker than her own amplifier jacks. The stone loudly cracked beneath her hands and a large dent quickly formed as it caved in, but other than a web of cracks stretching outwards from it, for the most part the boulder remained intact.

She frowned, a little frustrated by the decrease in power, but that was to be expected. They didn't have access to all of UA's resources anymore; she should be grateful Hatsume could even get her this much. Still, though, she felt a curl of unrest in her stomach as she distantly listened to Kaminari cheer and Hatsume prattle on excitedly about how well it worked.

_Will it be enough?_

Right now, wearing this costume and having tested the gear, it made everything feel more _real_. They were actually going to be vigilantes in this alternate world. The thought felt both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. Fighting villains was nothing _totally_ new, they'd had bad luck at the USJ and went on the internships. However, fighting on their own? Without UA or even other Pro Heroes to back them up if things went wrong?

This was definitely a giant risk. One wrong move, and they were _dead_.

She swallowed, her hands clenching at her sides. _No, that was a risk anyway._ They were in another dimension far more messed up than their own with no idea how they got there or how to get back. For all they knew it could be the work of a villain, lurking somewhere in this reality waiting for an opening to attack them. If they wanted to go home, they needed to take the initiative themselves; they couldn't just sit around doing _nothing_.

Becoming vigilantes might paint a target on their backs that wouldn't exist otherwise, but at least they could now protect themselves... and others, too. This world was messed up, that was a fact, and Kyouka wouldn't have applied to the hero course if she didn't have _some_ sense of justice. Leaving people to suffer and live in fear just went against her nature.

They'd been training to become heroes anyway, so being a vigilante wouldn't be _that_ different. A bit riskier, sure, but it was better than sitting around watching the world burn. When they got back home, she wondered if Aizawa-sensei would be proud or upset at them for this decision.

The thought made her smile as she turned to face the others. "So, when should we go on our first patrol?" Hatsume's face lit up with a beaming grin even larger than before, while Kaminari's mouth thinned into a firm line full of determination.

* * *

**I don't think anyone predicted Todoroki meeting Kouda or Shiozaki either. Lucky for him it's Shiozaki, since she's one of the only members of Class 1-B he remembers clearly. Now open to speculation on who else is in Odawara! Also, I need to draw Jirou and Kaminari's vigilante costumes soon. Since writing this chapter, I came up with one more detail for them to add before their first patrol that I think will have a HUGE impact on the story.**

**On an unrelated note, it's December 23. So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa and Happy Holidays to all!**


	14. Chapter 14: Bonding with Strangers

Chapter 14

.::Bonding with "Strangers"::.

"Are you _sure_ you've never played Mario Kart?" Izuku asked in near disbelief. Shinsou just mutely shook his head, his attention focused on the television screen as he maneuvered his racer around the track. After going shopping with Shigaraki and playing games for a majority of the previous night, Izuku had been inspired to move a TV and game console into Shinsou's room so they could play games together. He figured it'd be a better way to bond than asking for help on his homework.

He kind of regretted that now. Izuku squawked in dismay as Shinsou lobbed a blue shell at him, sending his Luigi spiraling away. "Seriously!? That's the third one in a row! How do you keep getting them!?" Shinsou offered a half-hearted shrug, and if he hadn't been wearing that damn muzzle he thought the other teen would be smirking rather smugly right now. Maybe he _was_, judging by that gleam in his eye.

"I just suck at video games, don't I," Izuku sighed, head hanging in dismay and quiet resignation. Shigaraki had been absolutely unsurprised when he lost while playing against him, repeatedly and horribly, across multiple games and genres. The only game he'd been remotely good at was Mario Kart, but Shinsou had thoroughly trounced him in every single race thus far.

As he finally crossed the finish line—a near fifteen seconds _after_ Shinsou—he threw the controller down on the bed and slumped back against the wall with a sigh. Shinsou glanced over at him curiously, setting down his own controller more peacefully and picking up his whiteboard. '_Are you done already?_' he wrote.

"I think so," Izuku sighed. "Sorry, I don't think I'm having as much fun as you."

'_You're just saying that because you keep losing._'

"Shut up," Izuku grumbled, pouting at him. Shinsou's eyes glinted with amusement as he picked up his controller again, exiting the multiplayer race to bring up the single-player courses instead. He paused though, shooting Izuku a hesitant look, and the green-haired boy offered a small smile. "Go ahead, I don't mind. I'll just watch, might be more fun that way." Satisfied to get approval, he selected a course while Izuku settled back to watch him play, content to just be an audience.

At least the brainwasher seemed to be enjoying himself. This was the first time Izuku had seen him remotely pleased since meeting him in this world; usually he maintained a gloomy air of reluctant tolerance towards him. Maybe virtually kicking his butt in racing had a therapeutic effect for him, Shinsou didn't have many outlets for his stress and frustration here.

...Izuku decided not to think too much on how _he_ played into that stress.

In any event, he felt like some of the tension between them had dissipated today, much to his relief. So far he'd made minimal progress with getting Bakugou to warm up to him, but Shinsou had proven a little more amenable to his overtures of friendship. He never acted overly _friendly_, but he maintained a much more amicable front around him during visits than the blond did.

Izuku wished he could attribute it to a growing sense of camaraderie between them, but he knew that wasn't the real reason. He figured out early on that Shinsou spent most of their visits analyzing him. Whereas Bakugou was volatile and prone to reacting without thinking, Shinsou was naturally quiet and calculating, even without the damn muzzle. His eyes always held a sharp, calculating gleam when they spoke, carefully molding his reactions and responses to foster a friendlier relation between them.

To him, Izuku was not a potential ally, but a potential _resource_, something to exploit if he played his cards right.

The thought hurt at first, but Izuku had to accept it. For all he loathed the situation, he was _technically_ part of the people responsible for holding Shinsou prisoner. He was Shinsou's best shot at freedom, whether through willing cooperation or trickery. Had he been in Shinsou's shoes he likely would have done the same thing.

It... gave Izuku an idea though. Since learning of Shinsou's presence he'd started forming a vague plan, one that might not really establish trust, but would hopefully help make _some_ progress in establishing an alliance, no matter how shaky. As the two fell into a companionable silence he could feel the envelope in his hoodie pocket, his fingers itching to pull it out.

Of course, that thought once again got interrupted by the sound of the doorknob turning.

Both of them startled, Shinsou's character swerving into a nearby racer on screen as his thumb jabbed the joystick. They both twisted to stare at the door, and in a near repeat of the previous day it slowly opened, only this time it wasn't Shigaraki who stuck his head inside. No, instead it was Toga, that usual lazy, deranged grin stretching across her lips as she peered inside.

Given how _his_ Toga acted around him, Izuku briefly wondered if Shigaraki would have been better.

"Helllloo, Mido-chan," she greeted, and her eyes flicked towards Shinsou and her smile grew. "_Jackie-chan._" Shinsou physically shuddered at the affection dripping from her voice as she butchered his vigilante title, while Izuku felt his own stomach twist uncomfortably. It reminded him too much of his own Toga's psychotic crush on him, and it suddenly occurred to him that Shinsou might be her type in this world. Speaking from experience, that was _not_ good.

He frowned, subtly positioning himself in front of his friend protectively. "What do you want, Toga?" he asked, keeping his voice as calm and level as possible.

"What, a girl can't visit her favorite vigilante?" Toga giggled as she covered her mouth, the gesture so normal and girly it felt out of place on the demented girl. Izuku swallowed, glancing back at Shinsou doubtfully. He did not want to expose the other boy to the deranged girl, and judging by the look Shinsou gave him he felt the same way. It made Izuku frown, turning back to her warily.

"Sorry, but we're in the middle of playing a game," he said, gesturing to the TV. She followed the motion and tilted her head curiously.

"Oh, Mario Kart? Who's winning?"

Izuku hesitated to answer, not wanting to give her more ammunition for her obsession with Shinsou. He felt the purple-haired boy shift behind him, and glanced back to see him write on his white board before turning to show her. '_Neither. You interrupted us and the AI racers are murdering me._' A glance at the screen confirmed this to be true, Shinsou's racer immobile and hovering in eighth place as the computer racers zoomed past him.

Toga seemed unfazed by the response—in fact, she seemed delighted, her eyes lighting up. "Ooh! Ooh! Do you guys do a punishment game when someone loses?"

"...Punishment game?" Izuku couldn't help the bleak note of horror in his voice as he repeated the phrase. Had it been any other high school girl he would expect silly punishments like "wear one of Kaminari's weird-smelling shirts" or "call Aizawa-sensei dad to his face" or something else (relatively) harmless. Toga though? Knife-wielding, crazy, _villainous_ Toga? Yeah, no. "We're good," he said tightly.

"Aww, but punishment games make stuff even more fun!" Toga whined with a pout. "The stakes add to the pressure and make you want to win even _more_!"

While Izuku frantically tried to think up a response, Shinsou wiped the board to write another message. '_I am not letting anyone stab me._' The blunt wording combined with his deadpan stare made Izuku want to smack his forehead in exasperation. That was pretty much his own thought, but he'd been hoping to think of a more tactful way to phrase it to the _mentally unstable knife-wielding girl_.

"It doesn't need to be the stabby-stab kind!" Toga chirped cheerfully. "Tomu doesn't let Mido-chan play those kinds of punishment games anyway!" That earned Izuku a startled look from Shinsou, a bit of concern actually flashing through his eyes. The rare display of caring for his well-being would have warmed Izuku's heart normally, but at this point Izuku was just so _done_ with everything he could only shrug listlessly.

"Then what punishments _would_ you suggest?" he asked Toga tiredly, just... giving in. If there was no stabbing involved, it couldn't be _that_ bad, right?

"Hmm, let's see." Toga tapped her lips with a thoughtful frown, then perked up and clapped her hands. "Oh! Oh! I know! The loser has to confess their crush to us!"

Izuku stared at Toga in disbelief, his jaw dropping open. Somehow, that both struck him as the last thing he'd expect to hear from her, and also made _absolute sense_ coming from her. Next to him Shinsou took up the white board once more. '_I don't have any crushes._'

"Me neither!" Izuku agreed quickly.

"Oh? You don't?" Oh no. Izuku could recognize the mischief in Toga's eyes as she smirked, her head tilting to the side as she folded her fingers under her chin. "Not even that girl Tomu saw you talking to yesterday?"

And at that moment Izuku's blood ran cold. _Uraraka._ A rush of complicated emotions washed over him as he recalled his brief encounter with his friend—relief, hope, anxiety, _fear_. Knowing there was another person from his own world here had been so relieving at first, but it had quickly turned to horror when he'd realized just how dangerous it was to associate with her.

He couldn't expose Uraraka to the dangers of the Alliance, not after seeing Bakugou and Shinsou. He couldn't let anyone else get pulled into this. So he'd pushed her away, and tried to avoid thinking about her and evaded questions from Shigaraki—but apparently that hadn't been enough, because she was now on Toga's radar.

His hands clenched into fists, his head bowing as he took a sharp breath. "So if I talk to a girl, I automatically have a crush on her?" he asked lowly. "She's just a girl I met once when I was a kid. I was just surprised she recognized me! I barely even know her!" He scowled at Toga, his green eyes glimmering with barely suppressed anger_. I can't let you hurt her._

Apparently his expression surprised her, because for once her sleazy smile faded to be replaced by a look of blank surprise. "Huh? Mido-chan, that's a really scary face."

"Just go away, Toga," Izuku ordered, turning back to the TV and picking up his discarded controller. "We need to get back to playing." In the corner of his eye he could see Toga frown, looking more puzzled than upset, but then to his immense relief her smile returned and she gave an exaggerated shrug.

"Okay, fine then. I need to get going anyway. See you later, Jackie!" She flashed Shinsou a bright smile as she waved and then exited, the door closing behind her. For a long moment neither of the boys moved, Izuku just staring at the TV while Shinsuo eyed him. Finally the purple-haired boy picked up his whiteboard once more, jotting down a quick question.

'_Are you okay?_' Upon reading it Izuku felt his shoulders droop, tears starting to prick his eyes. Shinsou startled as the green-haired boy threw his arms around him, ignoring the way the other teen stiffened as he began crying.

"I'm sorry, it's just so _stressful_, Uraraka's so nice and such a good friend and I miss her but I don't want her to get pulled into this too and _shoot_, I sound like a jerk saying that to you when you're already here, but I just don't want her to get hurt either—" As he continued babbling on endlessly the other teen awkwardly shifted inside the embrace before his chest heaved with resignation and he wrapped an arm around Izuku, patting his back comfortingly.

Izuku really didn't deserve such a good friend.

* * *

Nearly twenty-four hours after seeing Deku, Ochaco found herself curled up on her bed with her phone again, her bedroom door locked and the blankets pulled over her head as she tried not to freak out.

Seeing Deku had filled her with so much relief at first. He had been the same as ever, tearing up almost instantly when he saw her and regarding her with nothing but relief and joy. She had felt the same way, just so _happy_ that she wasn't _actually alone_. If she was going to be stuck with anyone in this alternate dimension, she couldn't have picked a better person than Deku.

But then when she tried to exchange phone numbers so they could talk and make plans he suddenly changed, going from crying with joy to panicked and horrified in the span of a single second. The change had been so abrupt she hadn't been able to make sense of it. Then a vaguely familiar stranger showed up he called "Tomu-nii," and then Deku had practically _fled_ with him while Suimin all but dragged her away.

From there, the oddness had only escalated. Immediately after parting ways with Deku, Suimin had insisted they go straight home, calling all sorts of people and hissing "_code blue_" and street addresses into her phone as she rushed Ochaco back. The sudden change in her normally friendly demeanor had left Ochaco confused and alarmed, temporarily distracting her from Deku's odd behavior. Once they got home she was sent straight to her room so Suimin could talk to her mom while they waited for her dad to get home, but when she asked what was going on they refused to answer.

It had been ten minutes after that when Ochaco finally realized why the name "Tomu-nii" had been so familiar. Once it clicked, she had been grateful to already be in the privacy of her room so no one could see her freak out.

_He's stuck with the League,_ she thought in a daze as she stared at her phone in the present. _No wonder he didn't want to give me his number._ She couldn't imagine how it must have felt to wake up surrounded by the League of Villains. If it had been her she'd be freaking out in a heartbeat. To keep his cool in that situation, and even call _Shigaraki_ "Tomu-nii"... Ochaco couldn't imagine doing that. It just reinforced how strong Deku was.

But still, to push her away after finally meeting again? To try to protect her from them while leaving himself at the League's mercy—_alone_? It burned at Ochaco's gut and frustrated her like never before.

She couldn't stop thinking about what he must be going through right now. Maybe if Ochaco had something to do, it wouldn't be so bad, but her dad had refused to take her to work today. He avoided saying why, just claiming he was worried, and it left her uneasy. She'd heard her parents whispering harshly with Suimin-sensei last night, so she knew they knew about Shigaraki.

Suimin-sensei had definitely recognized the villain. Looking back, she might have even recognized _Deku_; she had been on guard the moment she saw him, even before Shigaraki showed up. And when he did, she focused on getting Ochaco away from there as fast as possible. But how, though? And _why_? She wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure how to broach the topic without having to explain how _she_ knew. In any event, for now Ochaco had nothing but her phone to try to find answers.

She almost wished she didn't have it.

'_Orphan son of Flight 174 victims goes missing,_' read the headline on the screen, making her bite at her lip. According to the article Deku had disappeared at age eight, just two months after his parents died in a plane crash. It didn't go into nearly enough detail for such a spicy headline, the article little more than a blurb describing how he'd been depressed and had obviously run away, and the other articles about it weren't much better. The brevity irked her, and one word told her why:

_Quirkless._

Why did it say that? That strength he showed in class—the power that broke his bones and mangled his body so easily—it couldn't be anything _but_ a Quirk. But the word littered the few articles she could find on Izuku, brief as they were, and the repeated usage made her stomach twist with discomfort.

Quirkless kids tended to be the subject of much bullying and neglect, and she quickly realized that title, combined with a lack of parents, had led the police to neglect Deku's disappearance in favor of more "pressing" cases. For that same reason she couldn't find any information on him, even the newspapers forgetting he existed within a week of his vanishing.

What happened to Deku after he ran away? Did the League kidnap him? _Why?_ They didn't seem like they'd be interested in someone who was supposedly Quirkless. Maybe they realized he _had_ a Quirk, like he was a late bloomer and only manifested it sometime after running away. It would explain why he had so much trouble controlling it when they first started at UA, the teachers said his lack of control was more like a toddler than a teenager. Between his Quirk and his sharp mind, he'd be a valuable asset to the villains.

None of that felt right though. Izuku had seemed so calm and _happy_ when they met yesterday, like he'd temporarily forgotten his circumstances. No matter how relieved he might be, she couldn't imagine him forgetting for even a second if he'd been forced to help the League. He'd probably be haunted with guilt, even if it was some other Izuku who'd done it in the past and not _actually_ him. He was just that kind of guy.

A pop-up notification silently appeared at the top of the screen and covered half the article, and Ochaco blinked before quickly switching over to the tab with FacePage. The messenger was still open, a new message waiting for her.

'_I'm at lunch now so I can talk!_' Alien_Queen_Pink wrote. '_Just had a math test and preeeetty sure I bombed it. Help!_'

Ochaco smiled slightly, feeling some of the weight lift off her chest as she typed out a reply. '_How can I help? I can't change your grades for you._'

'_I dont know! Cant you rewind time with your infinity powers?_'

'_That's not my Quirk, sorry!_'

She got a string of distressed-looking emojis in response, making her giggle quietly. She started talking with who she suspected to be Ashido just yesterday, using it as a distraction from her concerns about Deku. They hadn't talked about anything specific, just basic introductions and random chatter about this and that. It felt just like her other text conversations with Ashido, solidifying her suspicions about her identity, but Ochaco hadn't dared to directly ask about it just yet.

Not after the disastrous revelation about Deku's circumstances.

If it was indeed Ashido and she came from their own dimension though, she at least seemed to be in a better position than him. So far she'd mentioned nothing particularly bad or worrying. Aside from school of course. '_Infinity is a math thing right?_' the Alien Queen questioned. '_Are you good at math? Could you tutor me?_'

'_If I tutored you, would you actually be willing to go thru with it?_'

'_...prob not. Maths boring. Oh and my friends say hi_'

'_Are you with your friends right now? Why are you messaging me instead of talking to them then!?_'

'_I dunno, I like meeting new people I guess? Also their getting annoyed & its funny._' This time Ochaco _did_ laugh softly to herself, smiling as she typed out a scolding response. The conversation ebbed and flowed as probable-Ashido interacted with her friends, the wait between responses growing longer. She giggled when her texting partner sent several long strings of random characters. No doubt her friends had reached the limits of their patience and were in the process of trying to steal the phone.

Ochaco typed up a response as more keyboard mashes were sent, just a joking query, '_Should I be worried?_' Of course she got more keyboard mashing in response, making her smile grow. Soon enough it faded though, her thoughts trailing back to Deku as she waited for an actual response.

Here she was, idly chatting online with someone who might be a classmate in the luxurious safety of her room, while Deku was stuck in the middle of enemy territory all alone. Her heart panged with guilt, biting her lip anxiously. Ochaco felt a bit like a spoiled princess from fairy tales, far removed from the dangers of the world and kept safe in her castle while the heroes went on their epic quests.

And in a way, that's _exactly _what was going on. In this world she was a rich heiress kept isolated and sheltered from an incredibly dangerous world by her parents, surrounded by kind people who would shower her with love and praise. If she ever wanted something, she just had to ask her dad and he would give it to her, neither of her parents burdened by the financial strain she was used to in her own world.

The more time passed, the more this world felt like some sort of weird bizarro version of her own world—and the more she felt like an imposter.

Her fingers curled tighter around her phone, her mouth setting in a firm line. She didn't like it. She didn't like sitting around doing _nothing_ while Deku was risking his life every day, just by being wherever the hell he was. Seeing him had invigorated a fire in her, her eyes hardening as her resolve settled.

Ochaco wasn't a princess, she was a _Hero_—and it was time to act like it.

* * *

"Give it back!"

"Not until you stop being rude!"

Mina scowled as she desperately reached for her phone as Kumiko held it above her head, silently cursing her old friend for being just slightly taller than her. She growled in irritation, jumping and feeling her fingers _just_ brush the case but failing to grab it. She released a frustrated yowl, stamping her foot with an angry huff. "Dang it, Kumiko! No fair!"

"That's what you get for being on your phone when you're with your friends at lunch," Kumiko replied, sticking out her tongue. While Mina continued growling Kirishima frowned.

"But... doesn't Anjou spend all her time on her phone?" he pointed out meekly, glancing at the girl in question.

"If you try to take my phone, I will murder you," Anjou said bluntly, never looking up from her phone, and Kirishima winced and scooted away from her. Rolling her eyes, Mina leaned over to knock on his head, making him yelp and jerk away.

"What the hell, Ashido?!" he sputtered.

"Don't be such a coward!" she scolded. "Be more manly!"

"Why do you keep _saying_ that!"

"Because Kirishima Eijirou is supposed to be super manly! Not some mopey wuss!" Kirishima looked at her skeptically but she didn't care, just continued to glare at him reproachfully. She was getting really annoyed by his timidity in this world, it was _definitely_ worse than middle school. It really made her wonder if something had happened to him in this world, because this couldn't _just_ be him being meek. Whatever the situation, she _really_ missed her Kirishima.

With Mina suitably distracted Kumiko finally lowered her phone, glancing at the screen. "I don't get why you're using FacePage to talk to someone else," she commented. "Aren't we good enough for you!"

"Of course you are!" Mina denied instantly, frowning at her as if hurt by the accusation. "You're my best friend, Kumiko!" The claim held true even when she'd been at UA. While they'd gone to different schools, she and Kumiko had a history that her new classmates just couldn't match. They would text almost every day, meet up on weekends and holidays whenever possible, and Mina fully planned to drag Kumiko to UA at some point to meet her new friends there.

"Right," Kumiko said, scrolling through Mina's phone. "Otherwise you wouldn't be turning to total strangers for companionship." Pouting, Mina pointedly looked away from her friend in mock betrayal while Kumiko hummed. "Seriously, who is this 'Infinity_Girl_8'? Actually, strike that, you obviously don't know judging by this chat history. How'd she find you?"

"I don't know, it doesn't matter," Mina huffed with a frown. Actually, she was _really_ sure that the account belonged to someone from Class 1-A. Infinity_Girl found her as Alien_Queen_Pink after all, the most obvious name Mina could think of. She hadn't outright asked yet though, having the sense to realize that asking a random person if they're from another dimension _might_ come across as a bit weird if they weren't. Plus, wouldn't Infinity_Girl bring it up if she _was_?

She totally thought it was a classmate though. She'd narrowed it down to Uraraka or Hagakure, mainly because Jirou, Tsuyu and Yaoyorozu would have definitely mentioned it by now. Maybe not super-direct (except Tsuyu, she would absolutely just straight up ask), but they'd have at least _hinted_ at it by now. She could see Hagakure taking her time and just talking though, or Uraraka being too nervous or careful to bring it up right away.

"She's homeschooled?" Kumiko said, raising her eyebrows as she read the earlier chat. "Dang, this girl sounds really lonely."

There was also that. Mina couldn't blame whoever sent her the friend request for just wanting to talk. The other girl hadn't gone into specifics but she said she was homeschooled and lost touch with her friends. If Mina had woken up in this world alone with no friends, she would have run away by day two just to escape the sheer _boredom_.

Trying to picture the situation actually made her grateful she had the option to go to school here. School might suck, but it gave her something to do.

"So you're trying to brighten the day of a poor, socially deprived girl?" Anjou asked, arching an eyebrow without looking up. "How charitable of you. And stupid."

"Hey!" Mina snapped. "What do you mean, stupid!?"

"Just saying. You don't have any proof that's actually a girl."

"Anjou's got a point," Kirishima agreed with a nod. "You don't know anything about this person. Like, it could be some creep trying to fish for information about your Quirk."

"Or a scientist who thinks you're actually an alien," Kumiko added with a smirk. "Seriously, Mina? 'Alien Queen Pink'?"

"Give me that!" This time Mina successfully snatched her phone back, scowling at Kumiko before scrolling back down to the latest message. Dang it, they'd sent a bunch of keyboard mashes during the struggle. Pouting, she quickly tapped in a quick reply to Infinity Girl's query. '_Sorry, my friends are jerks & stole my phone!_' She added in a couple annoyed-looking emojis with their tongues sticking out and sent it, leaning back in her seat with a sigh.

"Still, you were talking to her pretty late last night," Kumiko commented. "The last message was at what, one in the morning? No wonder you looked like a zombie today!"

"You know, you'd probably have done better on that test if you'd actually studied last night instead of chatting," Anjou commented sarcastically, and Mina flung her hands up in annoyance.

"Ugh, no I wouldn't! I hate math! When will I ever need it?"

"Pretty much every career path available, if you believe Kawara-sensei," Kumiko teased.

"Man, I hope not," Kirishima groaned. "Math is really frustrating. I think I mixed up which number is what on the graph questions..."

"Oh _thank All Might_, I wasn't the only one," Mina moaned. "I definitely got up and down mixed with sideways a couple times." Anjou paused, finally glancing up from her phone to squint at them.

"Are... are you talking about coordinated pairs?" she asked. "That's the most basic thing on there."

"So you two absolutely bombed it, huh?" Kumiko mused with a sage nod, and both Mina and Kirishima sank in their seats with depressed moans. Picking at her lunch idly, Mina glanced at her phone, willing another message to come through to distract her from her despair. But when one finally did arrive, it made her stiffen, sitting up ramrod straight with a heavy frown. Her friends looked at her in surprise, all of them frowning.

"Ashido, what's wrong?" Kirishima asked.

"Did Infinity Girl ask for nudes?" Anjou asked blandly, easily ducking away from Kumiko's annoyed attempt to swat her arm.

"No, but I don't know what to say," Mina said, turning the phone to show them.

'_I'm sorry, but I need to go for a while. I'll contact you again when I get a chance. Wish me luck!_'

* * *

**So in this world, Toga has a crush on Shinsou instead of Izuku. I am not sure if Izuku finds this better or worse.**

**No question for next time. But feel free to throw in predictions! See you next year!  
**


	15. Chapter 15: First Milestone

Chapter 15

.::First Milestone::.

"So you haven't heard from him either?"

"Nope. Totoro never calls, and no emails, either, though not too surprised by _that_ one. Last time I heard from him was after the big scene with you-know-who."

"Figures," Kuroe grumbled under his breath. He currently sat at his kitchen table, his phone sitting next to his laptop on speaker while he typed away. He'd pulled up his email—all of them, even the throwaway accounts he'd used for spam and shadier websites back in high school—and had spent the past few hours combing through them meticulously, but so far he'd found nothing. "I don't think he's emailed me in, wow, three years now."

There was a huff on the other end of the phone. "Better than me, the newest one I can find is four years ago. Makes me wonder how the hell he tracked me down last year."

"Who knows," Kuroe replied with a light shrug, logging out of his accounts and closing the windows as he deemed his search a lost cause. He paused then, and commented, "Actually, that _is_ really weird, since you kinda _have_ to be off the radar."

"I'm starting to think it was just luck," she replied wryly. "That, or the little demon helped him find me."

"Yeah, yeah." Kuroe rolled his eyes at the nickname, faintly amused by the annoyance in her tone. He had met the "demon" in question before and definitely left the encounter with an unsettled feeling, but he wasn't sure it merited such wariness on her part. There had to be some sort of history between the two she hadn't told him.

He kept his thoughts to himself though, knowing better than to ask. She never spoke about her past unless she wanted to, and he often regretted every little thing he learned. For now he just said, "Anyways, he'll probably reach out to one of us sometime soon. He's gotta be desperate by now."

"Assuming they were actually together. We don't have any actual confirmation on that, other than that late-night chat I had with him last year."

"No, but I'd definitely put my money on it if I were a betting man." He sighed, shaking his head. "Just—if he _does_ contact me, what the hell do I say?"

"Friendly reminder I have _less_ social skills than you."

"But you're more experienced at dealing with shady stuff like this."

"Ugh, it's so weird to call this _shady_," she groaned. "Okay, if we're being serious, I'd say your first step would be to try to get both sides of the story. We have no idea what's been happening since the last time we saw Totoro—and again, they might not even be connected." He heard a sigh, followed by a grumble of, "Knew we should've dragged him to your sister back then..."

"To be fair, Ran's got her own life," Kuroe pointed out mildly. "And that was right around exam time. She literally threatened to murder me if I disturbed her."

"You know she was probably exaggerating, right? Exam season _does_ suck though. Glad we're done with that."

"You never even finished high school, did you?"

"Considering I have not needed to use _anything_ I learned in high school, don't regret it," came the blithe reply, but then softer, "Do regret some other stuff that happened though. Anyways, I need to go now. I have a job in an hour, and I need to make lunch before I go."

"Say hi to your brother for me," Kuroe deadpanned, and heard a small huff.

"Not my brother."

"Alright, fine. Say hi to your unrelated way-younger childhood friend."

"...You're lucky I like you, Kuroe. Later." There was a beep as the call ended, and he closed his laptop with a sigh, rubbing at his forehead.

"Lucky, huh," he muttered, a rueful smirk on his face. Hardly a word he would have ever used for himself. For now though he pushed the thought away, picking up his phone to start scrolling through the messages to find the ongoing chat with his sister. The call had reminded him he needed to call her down to Odawara, the mere thought making him grimace. Nothing quite as awkward as speaking to your largely-estranged sister, but he needed her help with the runaway network.

Yesterday he'd gotten a call from Shiozaki informing him that she'd made contact with Todoroki Shouto and that he'd agreed to do some favors. He'd honestly been surprised the teen offered at all. He'd gotten the sense the boy was naturally wary and suspicious of strangers, not that Kuroe could blame him. In this day and age, being the son of a big-shot hero like Endeavor just made him a walking target.

That had been the reason he hadn't told anyone in the network Todoroki's actual identity just yet. No point making more targets for anyone searching for him. In this case, ignorance wasn't just bliss, it was _safe_.

He still wondered if he'd done the right thing by inviting the boy to join the runaway network. Todoroki was by far the highest-profile runaway to show up in Odawara, and he obviously had some sort of goal for coming there. With no knowledge of what he'd been up to since disappearing last year, Kuroe very well might have invited a world of trouble onto their small group.

If villains suddenly showed up looking for him, he wasn't sure they'd be able to get everyone out of Odawara without _someone_ getting caught. They'd already lost one kid, losing even one more would crush them.

All the more reason to get Ran down here to meet Todoroki. At least then if everything went to hell, they could make sure he couldn't just disappear and leave chaos behind without having to account for his own actions. With that in mind Kuroe opened the conversation with his sister and typed out a quick invite to Odawara that weekend.

* * *

This was it. This was actually happening.

Denki could feel his heart hammering as he and Jirou walked through the alleyways, their hoods pulled over their heads. School had been effectively canceled due to a villain attack—apparently a common occurrence because the school had a system to have the classes online instead, which _kind of seriously freaked him out_—so they'd taken advantage of it to go on their first vigilante patrol.

"So, do you have, like, any experience with this stuff?" he whispered to Jirou anxiously. "I mean, my internship was pretty boring and uneventful."

"Same, honestly," she replied nonchalantly. "I helped direct civilians to safety a couple times, but I didn't get any action otherwise."

"So neither of us have real experience," he deadpanned. "_Great._" They hadn't even participated in the attack on the camp. Denki had been safely stuck in the lodge thanks to his remedial classes, while Jirou had been knocked out by the gas and thus missed all of the action. She hadn't even been awake by the time All Might's big battle happened. Which... had to be really disorienting now that he thought about it.

Now was not the time for serious discussions about any emotional trauma his friend might have endured though. Now, they were hunting down villains.

Yeah... This felt kind of insane. The vigilante thing sounded cool at first, but now that they were actually _doing_ it, he felt hyper-aware of how vulnerable and inexperienced they were. If things went wrong, they could actually _die_. And if things went _right_, they could still die. "Aizawa-sensei will _totally_ kill us if he ever finds out about this," he groaned.

"Yeah, he would," Jirou agreed as she stopped near the mouth of the alley. "But that would mean he's here too, and in that case I won't mind the lecture. Hell knows we need an adult. Now be quiet, I need to check something." As she talked she pressed a palm against the brick wall, and he could see the tip of her earphone jack protrude from her sleeve to plug into the bricks.

A few seconds passed and she withdrew it back into her sleeve, stepping back and smoothing the fabric. "There's a robbery inside there right now," she said lowly. "One guy, three civilians."

"Wait, what?!" Denki startled, barely remembering to keep his voice low. "Hold on, how did you even know to check that wall!?"

"I had a lot of free time while you were in class," Jirou responded smoothly. "I looked up local villain activity, and it turns out there's a bunch of apps to track that stuff. This area has a lot of crime, so I figured someone would attack this place sooner or later. I mean, it's a pretty popular convenience store, so, yeah. Didn't expect to get lucky on our first trip though."

"Lucky, huh," Denki muttered, and Jirou snorted.

"Yeah, I know. Weird word to use in this situation, right?" She tugged the mask over her mouth and the visor over her eyes, and Denki unconsciously mimicked her, nerves beginning to take root. This was it, the big moment. Their debut as vigilantes.

Letting Jirou take lead was natural. He knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, especially when he used up all his electricity, and right now his nerves would get in the way of making good decisions. He followed closely, Jirou leading the way to a back door connecting to the alley (_and look, he would never think of that!_) and quietly opening it. They slipped inside silently, entering a storage room.

"—the register now!" a deep voice was snarling from the front, probably the villain. He didn't pay much attention though, his gaze locked on the two people crouched by the shut door staring at them wide-eyed. His first thought: _Crap, there's people hiding out here!_

His second thought: _HOLY SHIT IS THAT SERO!?_

There was absolutely no doubt one of the two people gawking at them was Sero Hanta. He didn't wear any kind of school uniform, instead wearing what looked like a uniform for this store? Well, it was an ugly long-sleeved shirt with an orange and white color scheme and a dark green apron over it, so, yeah. Denki didn't think he'd wear that for kicks.

He was so shocked he almost didn't notice the other person—a woman with fluffy pink hair that looked like cotton candy—open her mouth, but luckily Jirou did and quickly raised a finger to her mouth. "We're not villains," she whispered. "We're here to help."

"Help?" Sero repeated in a hiss, eyes flicking towards the door before returning to them. "Are you guys, like heroes or something?"

"Or something," Denki muttered under his breath, and didn't miss the skeptical look Sero shot him. The woman gave a quiet gasp though, her eyes lighting up.

"Are you _vigilantes_?" she whispered, leaning forward expectantly.

"Yeah, we are," he confirmed, turning to her with a nod while Jirou crept towards the door. He figured she was going to use her earphone jack to get a read on the situation in the other room, so he took it upon himself to distract the others. "By the way, did you guys call the police or anything?"

"Can't," Sero scoffed quietly, scowling bitterly. "My phone's dead, and she dropped hers when that guy burst in."

"He surprised me!" the woman whined quietly with a childish pout. "I heard the bell and looked up at that ceiling-mirror-thing by the front door, and that guy took two steps in and then his hair suddenly popped up and made his head look like a giant sea urchin! You _know_ people don't just suddenly activate their Quirks like that unless they're planning to do something!"

"Yeah, you got a point there," Denki agreed with a nod. Sea urchins were spiky, right? And probably poisonous, too. In other words, touching this guy would probably be a bad idea. Good thing neither of them needed to make direct contact.

"Hey," Jirou hissed, drawing his attention. She waved a hand at him to get closer and Denki obediently scurried to her side. She pitched her voice even lower now, making sure the others wouldn't hear. "He's in a straight line from the door, about three meters away and facing a counter. I'm thinking I'll open it and charge in as a distraction. Think you can use a rod and tase him?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Denki confirmed with a nod, feeling way more relaxed and confident now that they had a plan. Jirou nodded back, and they quickly pressed against the wall next to the door. Jirou held up a hand and silently counted down from three with her fingers, and when the last one went down she slammed it open and charged out with a ferocious shout.

The sudden commotion obviously drew the attention of the robber, who roared loudly in indignation. "Who the hell are _you_!?" Denki could hear something crash, making him hold his breath and the others in the room flinch. He quickly took a peek outside, trying not to be seen.

Just as the pink-haired woman had described, the guy's head looked like a giant sea urchin, the black spikes sharp and dangerous looking. What she didn't mention or notice: his arms had the same spikes in the place of arm hair. It didn't seem like he could launch them, thankfully, but he swung his arm at Jirou with an angry yell, the female vigilante neatly ducking out of its range while the poor cashier ducked behind the counter.

Denki didn't waste the distraction, quickly pointing his index finger at the man's back with his thumb raised high. A cool wave of calmness washed over him, his nerves vanishing as he focused on the villain. "Bang," he whispered, and brought his thumb down on the trigger button on his gloves.

Instantly a slender golden needle shot out from the small compartment on the back of his wrist, a near-invisible wire trailing behind it. It hit the man square in the back, making him flinch and start to turn, but before he could Denki released an arc of electricity. Lightning surged along the thin wire and the man screamed as it reached him, jolting in place with his face contorted in pain and shock. As he staggered back Jirou lunged for his legs, knocking him off-balance and sending him to the ground.

Denki grabbed the wire with his other hand and yanked it back, jerking the lightning rod free with it. Before it could reach him though Jirou snatched the needle from the air and stabbed it into the man's other arm, making him shout in pain. "Do it again!" she hollered, and Denki startled before obeying, quickly sending another jolt of electricity. The man spasmed once and then went still, eyes rolling back in his head.

For a moment all was silent, tension thick in the air. Denki flinched when the man's fingers twitched slightly, holding his breath, but when he didn't make any other moves he hesitantly allowed himself to relax. The cashier slowly rose behind the counter, his four eyes wide and filled with a mixture of shock and awe.

"Holy shit," he whispered, echoing Denki's feelings very accurately. As he stared at the fallen villain he could hear Sero and the woman emerge, padding behind him.

"Is he down?" Sero asked hesitantly.

"I... Yeah, I think so."

"Good." There was a long beat of silence. Then, the woman spoke.

"So don't you have, like, anything to restrain him, or something...?"

"...I _knew_ we were forgetting something," Jirou groaned, hanging her head in exasperation, and something about that looked so funny that Denki just wanted to laugh. All the tension in his body fled at once, his legs suddenly wobbly as his whole body drooped with relief.

"Holy shit, we did it!" he gasped, quiet laughter escaping him. "We beat a villain!"

"That reaction's really reassuring from the guys who just saved us," the cashier spoke up from behind the counter, now looking slightly unimpressed. The woman meanwhile gasped, clapping her hands together with a smile.

"Oh my gosh, is this your debut? Did we just see vigilantes _debut_!? Ahh, this is so amazing! We're your first saves!"

"Okay, before we go any further, does anyone have anything to tie this guy up?" Jirou cut in exasperatedly. "Seriously, we didn't bring zip ties or anything. And also, can one of you _please_ call the police already?"

"Uh, I can help with the tying up thing," Sero volunteered hesitantly while the cashier pulled out his phone, and rolled up his sleeves to expose the tape dispensers on his elbows. He tore off a long strip and held it to Jirou, who took it while looking at the villain's arms thoughtfully. Since falling unconscious the spikiness had receded, leaving his hair flat on both his head and arms, but they couldn't guarantee the spikes wouldn't be able to break through the tape once he woke up.

Thinking fast, she pushed the guy's torso up and bent him forward. Denki scurried over to help hold it in place while she pulled one of his legs so the knee bent, and from there she awkwardly wrapped his wrist to his ankle. Sero ended up coming over to help with the other leg, a lot _more_ hesitantly than he would if he'd been part of Class 1-A. All the while they could hear the cashier talk to the police, rattling off the location and details about the attack.

As they finished binding the robber's limbs they heard the click of a camera shutter, making all three freeze and snap their heads to see the pink-haired woman holding up a phone. "Sorry!" she said with a smile, lowering it to smile at them above the edge. "It's just so cool to see vigilantes debut! My friends are never going to believe this!"

"Uh, that's fine, I guess?" Jirou muttered, sounding hesitant. Denki felt the same. It was kinda cool to have someone take their picture like this, but they were also kind of _breaking the law right now_ and he really didn't want to get in trouble.

"Oh, and can I know your names?" the woman asked.

"Names?" Denki repeated blankly, and she whipped her head to stare at him in shock.

"Wait, do you guys not have vigilante names yet!?"

"Uh... Not really." The topic of names actually _had_ come up, but they'd ultimately decided against choosing any. They didn't want to get too much publicity so it wasn't like they'd be shouting their codenames for the whole world to hear, and the only names they could come up with related to their Quirks. Might be nice and dandy in their world, but here letting their Quirks get out could tilt the odds distinctly against their favor.

"Huh, that's... weird," Sero muttered. "But also kinda cool? Like, you guys are actually doing this to help people instead of fame, y'know?"

"Yeah, exactly," Denki agreed, relaxing a bit.

"Well, I don't really care about your names," the cashier interjected behind the counter, "But the police will probably be here any minute so if you guys want to avoid getting caught, now's the time to scram." The warning startled them, Denki and Jirou exchanging a brief look before leaping to their feet and racing for the storage room. They didn't waste time questioning why the guy warned them or even saying bye, they absolutely did NOT want to get caught.

Within a minute of fleeing to the back alleys their wariness proved well-founded, because Jirou cursed under her breath. "Police incoming, just up the corner!" she warned, and Denki quietly cursed as they ducked into an alleyway and hid behind a dumpster. Seconds later he heard people rushing past, one man barking into what had to be a radio or something.

Plugging her jack into the wall, after about a minute Jirou nodded and they ran back out, hurrying the way the police had come. They kept to alleyways and other back streets, Jirou taking lead once more since she had the enhanced hearing and had also researched the area. He made a mental note to look up this entire district on Street View or something when they got back to base.

As they got further from the store though he felt some of the initial adrenaline fade, a wide grin making itself known under his mask. Holy shit, they did it. They managed to take down their first villain, and got away with it! Ahead of him he heard a quiet laugh from Jirou, no doubt coming to the same thought.

"Now _that_ was pretty cool," she declared, and Denki laughed open and freely as he bobbed his head in agreement.

"We totally saved the day! We're heroes!"

"Not heroes," Jirou corrected, and he could hear the smirk in her voice even if he couldn't see it. "We're _vigilantes_."

* * *

**Today's chapter was very fun to write. I hope you all enjoyed it! Also hope the phone call wasn't too confusing.  
**

**Questions for next time: who do you think everyone from Kuroe's phone call are? Also, who will be the next unknowing person to appear from Class 1A or 1B?**

**Also, an unrelated note: I've been thinking of changing the title. I feel like it doesn't really grab people's attentions. Ideas include "Somewhere In Between", "Heroes Sleeping Safe and Sound", "So the Story Goes", "Gamble an Unknown Price", "Let The Fever Rise", and "Hearts Ignite to the Call". The last one is the full line from the song I got the current title, I just felt like there were too many stories with "heart" in the title but now I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?**


	16. Chapter 16: One Step at a Time

Chapter 16

.::One Step at a Time::.

"Are you sure you'll be okay, sweetie?"

"I'll be fine, mom," Ochaco reassured her mother, trying not to roll her eyes at the woman's almost nagging concern. "I know not to open the door for strangers and all that."

"Still, you'll be home alone for most of the day," her mom murmured, frowning as she glanced away. "Maybe I should just reschedule..."

"Mom, no!" Ochaco protested, stamping her foot with a frown. "You've been waiting a full two months for this appointment! If you reschedule now, who knows when they can get you in again? I've stayed home alone tons of times before this! I can take care of myself, I promise!"

"I suppose you have a point..." Her mother sighed, still looking a bit uncomfortable, but she then pasted on a smile. "Alright, sweetie, I get it. You're right, I do need to go today or Doctor Hayashi probably won't be able to fit me in until next year. I just wish the timing was better..." She shook her head before leaning closer to hug Ochaco. "I'll be back in a few hours. I love you, dear."

"I love you too, mom," Ochaco said, relaxing and offering a smile as she tried to ignore the pit of guilt swelling in her stomach. Her mother gave her a quick peck on the forehead before grabbing her coat and striding to the door, and when it closed behind her Ochaco's whole body sagged tiredly, her smile vanishing as she gave a large sigh.

_I'm so sorry._

She turned and headed up to her bedroom, her chest heavy and head hanging low. She felt awful talking to her mother like this, lying to her face like that, but she had no other choice. Today her dad would be at work all day, Suimin was busy with something she didn't know, and her mother had a doctor's appointment in their original hometown that would keep her away for a good few hours.

Ochaco wouldn't get another chance like this to run away.

She couldn't stay here anymore. She loved her parents, but these people—they weren't _her_ parents. This wasn't _her_ home, this wasn't _her_ family, this wasn't her _life_. Right now she was an interloper in another Ochaco's body, and she needed to find a way back to her own world. As long as she stayed in this house though that just wouldn't happen. Her dad and Suimin were too protective, she wouldn't be able to do _anything_ if she didn't leave first.

She'd known that for a while now, but it was now more critical than ever because Deku was here too. While Ochaco was living up a life of luxury he was trapped with the League of Villains. She'd already let him down when she didn't join him at Kamino, and hadn't been able to do anywhere near enough during the raid on Overhaul's base. This time the circumstances were even _more_ impossibly dire, and she absolutely could not afford to leave him alone.

To that end, she went to her closet and all but slammed the sliding door open, pulling out the backpack and clothes she'd prepared the previous night. She had no idea why she had one of her dad's ratty old button-ups in her closet, but she felt grateful as she pulled it over her t-shirt along with a pair of generic-looking gray sweatpants. It should look generic enough to keep her from being identified, the only iffy part the pair of sneakers she'd found in the back of her closet, but that wasn't her only plan.

She headed to her bathroom with an air of determination, opening the cabinet beneath the sink to reveal a box full of brightly colored chalk. Last night while digging through her closet she'd found a hair chalk kit targeted at preteen girls, and she pulled it out along with latex gloves and a spray bottle of water she used to thoroughly douse her hair.

_Goodbye for now, brunette hair._ Ochaco grabbed the wet ends and began running a dark red chalk over it, twisting the locks to spread the color as much as possible and watching it slowly darken in the mirror. It didn't turn _totally_ red, just became more of a deep auburn, but this was just the first layer of color. She had more to go.

Half an hour of frantic and meticulous hair chalking later, she emerged from the bathroom feeling like a new person. A few layers had left her hair more red than brown, the dye job uneven but good enough for now. She peeled off the gloves and shoved them in a plastic zip lock bag along with the still-damp chalk she'd used, taking the rest of the chalk kit back to the closet and pushing it to the very back behind the empty box she'd found her sneakers in. Hopefully no one would notice one missing.

With her hair now colored and in the process of drying, she turned to the backpack she'd filled last night and checked it one last time. She'd grabbed some extra underwear and bras, her toothbrush, a spare pair of sneakers and a metal thermos, but otherwise she kept it light. She couldn't risk taking much of her own clothing, if she wore them she might get identified and taken back. Instead, she packed cash. _Lots_ of cash.

Ochaco nodded to herself as she stuffed the plastic bag with the chalk and gloves inside and zipped up the backpack, slinging it over her shoulder and turning to the window. This was it. Time to go. As she walked towards it she paused, casting a glance at her cell phone on the table. Taking it would be too risky, she knew smart phones had built-in GPSs that could be tracked.

It also meant she couldn't talk to Ashido.

That loss probably hit her the hardest. At this point she was _certain_ that Alien_Queen_Pink and Ashido were one and the same, though whether it was _her_ Ashido remained to be seen. But either way, she wouldn't be able talk to her anytime soon. She didn't have a phone number she could use to text her even if she got a cheap prepaid phone; all she could do was hope she'd be able to find a net café sometime soon and message her on FacePage there.

Turning away from the phone for the final time, Ochaco took a deep breath and pushed her window open. Her bedroom overlooked the fenced-in backyard, a chilly autumn breeze blowing in, and she slapped her own arm and _jumped_.

Cold air assaulted her as she leaped into the sky, the lack of gravity keeping her high above the ground. She kicked off the windowsill and aimed her trajectory towards the fence, but even as she passed over it she kept going. She kept her gaze on a tree at the far end of the road behind her house, ignoring the rising taste of bile in her throat as she flew towards it like an arrow.

When she got close enough she pressed her fingers together and felt gravity take control once more. She shot out her hands to snag a branch and swung herself to the ground, landing on her feet and taking off at a run as she swallowed back some vomit.

Her plan: go to the nearest thrift shop, buy new clothes and change, and then go to _another_ one and repeat the process until she felt satisfied no one would be able to track her by clothing alone. Her parents almost certainly had scary connections in this world given their wealth, so she had to be absolutely sure she wouldn't be found again.

After that, though?

Well, hopefully Deku wouldn't be too far from that shopping center where she met him.

* * *

When Shouto volunteered to complete some favors to Shiozaki and Kouda, he hadn't been sure what to expect. He had no information on the runaway network, and had even less of an idea what they knew about him. He at least knew Kuroe hadn't given them his name, so he opted to go by the alias "Yuki" for the time being. The choice got a few strange looks, all directed at his black hair, but once he showed off the cold half of his Quirk they accepted it easily.

So far he hadn't met anyone other than those two, Shiozaki citing the rest of the network as being incredibly wary of newcomers until they'd been "officially inducted". The vague way she phrased that left him wary, but he had no room to complain or ask questions so he kept silent. That said, they had a surprising amount of favors to carry out, and more than one raised a few new questions.

"Why am I buying three boxes of black dye and a box of frozen crickets?" he asked as he met them at their meeting spot, loaded down with canvas bags.

"Some of our members have unique needs," Shiozaki said with a simple shrug as Kouda took the bags. "Quirks tend to have some sort of unique cost associated with them after all, and it can lead to... _interesting_ cravings."

"Right." That did not satisfy Shouto's curiosity, but he didn't push it further as he pulled the change from his pocket. "Here, some stuff was on sale so there was extra change left over." It felt wrong to keep it for himself, even if he needed more money.

"Thank you," Shiozaki said as she accepted it, slipping it into a pocket sewn into her skirt.

"I still don't get why I'm the one who has to do the grocery shopping."

"The local stores are starting to notice us more," Shiozaki explained. "The cashiers seem to be concerned by our... _humble_ clothing. While their concern is wonderful, we'd rather avoid attention." Shouto just nodded, accepting the explanation easily. Given they were a network of runaways, it made sense to want to avoid as much attention as possible. Hopefully Shouto wouldn't be added to some growing list of potential runaways.

While Shiozaki and Kouda began sifting through the bags to double-check everything had been purchased he just stood there awkwardly, unsure if he should just leave or not. After about a minute Kouda glanced up and seemed to notice his predicament, nudging Shiozaki's arm to get her attention before he began signing. Shouto wasn't fluent by any stretch but he vaguely recognized a few of the signs from class, specifically the words, "thank," "ask" and "villain," the last sign making him particularly alert.

Shiozaki nodded and turned to Shouto. "Rockfish says thank you. He also wants to know how long you plan to stay in Odawara." She made no mention of the word "villain" despite the fact Shouto _knew_ he saw that sign—everyone in Class 1-A had been taught it for emergencies—but he decided not to mention it. For now, at least.

"I'm not sure yet," he admitted. "I came here looking for someone, but I'm not sure whether he's actually here or not." The pair not-so-subtly perked up at the admission, and Kouda's hands flew in a flurry of signs, once again flashing "villain" as well as "family" and "friend."

"Is it a relative or friend?" Shiozaki asked curiously, and Shouto paused. Were he and Tokoyami friends? They didn't speak too much, but then again, this was another dimension entirely so they were quite likely strangers.

"I don't think so," he settled, and Kouda shot Shiozaki the most blatantly confused look he'd ever seen. Shiozaki herself kept her own face blank, merely blinking at him.

"Do you... know this person?" she asked. Again, Shouto had to pause to think. Yes, he definitely knew Tokoyami back in his world. But then, this was another world, and he didn't know if this world's Shouto had ever met Tokoyami here.

"Maybe," he said with a shrug. Kouda made a small, whimper-like noise, looking even _more_ confused. Shiozaki just stared at him, somehow even more blank now.

"...Do you know their name?" she finally asked. Oh, good, one he could answer.

"His name is Tokoyami Fumikage," he replied. "I think he's operating under the name Phantom Shadow alongside Gentle Criminal right now, though."

Kouda made a sound not unlike a dying animal, while Shiozaki just blinked and slowly tilted her head. "...Pardon me for asking, but how do you know that, and why are you looking for him?"

...And back to one he couldn't reasonably answer. Shouto frowned as he mulled over his options. Should he explain the alternate dimension thing, or would that be too much? Tokoyami might be likely to believe it, but there was no reason Shiozaki or Kouda would. They might end up reporting him for being mentally unstable or something like that. But that might draw undue attention to themselves, so they might keep it secret and just avoid him.

"It's complicated," he decided with a shrug, and paused upon noticing Kouda's distinctly distressed expression. "K—um. Rockfish, are you alright? You look... upset?"

Kouda released a long, drawn-out whine, while Shiozaki just continued to stare at Shouto with an unreadable look. "...Yuki-san," she finally said, and paused. "Are you planning to join them?" Shouto frowned, confused by the question.

"No? I just need his help."

"With... what, exactly?"

Back to the alternate dimension problem. Should he just explain the alternate dimension theory? Aside from the whole 'might call authorities' thing, they might instead think he was just making it up. It _did_ sound pretty ridiculous. Shouto mulled it over briefly, and once again settled for a shrug. "It's complicated," he repeated, and then frowned. "Rockfish, are you sick?"

Kouda looked worryingly pale now, his mouth open but not uttering so much as a squeak. Shiozaki regarded him for a moment before turning her gaze back to Shouto. "Yuki-san, are you aware of how your answers sound?" she questioned, and he frowned.

"No. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Well..." She trailed off, seeming to consider her words. "To make sure we understand correctly. You are currently searching for the sidekick of Gentle Criminal, whose name you know for reasons you do not share, and who you may or may not know, to ask for help with an issue you refuse to disclose."

"Yes," Shouto confirmed with a nod, and then paused as her words sunk in. "Oh." Right, now that she'd said it out loud he sounded pretty suspicious. He could see why Kouda looked ready to pass out or run away now. It was actually pretty impressive he hadn't started panicking yet, and Shouto should _probably_ clear things up before he did.

To that end he stood straighter and gave a small bow, channeling his inner Iida. "I apologize, I didn't mean to come across that way. I'm not looking to join them or do anything villainous though, and I have no intention of divulging any information about you or this network to anyone."

"Then, could you explain _why_ you're looking for him?" Shiozaki asked, and Shouto frowned as he straightened himself.

"I... don't really know how to explain it, honestly," he admitted. "My situation is complicated, and I'm still trying to understand it myself. I can't go to heroes or the police, and I can't find any information online, so right now I think Tokoyami might be the best option to help me."

Kouda regained some of his color at the stilted explanation, now frowning and looking thoughtful. He gulped and raised one finger to call for attention. "D-does i-it have to be h-him?" he asked, voice shaky and barely above a whisper.

Shouto blinked and opened his mouth to respond but then paused. Actually, _did_ it have to be Tokoyami? Tokoyami seemed like the most likely person to believe his story, but even if he did that didn't guarantee he could actually help. But come to think of it, this runaway network might also have access to helpful information too. He'd been so focused on finding Tokoyami, it hadn't really occurred to him to look for other people.

"...Can I have some time to think about it?" he finally asked. Telling someone he came from another dimension seemed like a big step, and while he'd prepared himself to tell Tokoyami he hadn't done so in regards to Shiozaki or Kouda. He should probably take some time to think it over, just to be safe.

"...Alright," Shiozaki said after a moment, nodding slowly. "But... please tell us if you decide to resume looking for... um, Phantom Shadow."

"I will," Shouto agreed with a nod. They parted ways a few minutes later, Shouto left with a lot to think about.

Unknown to him, Shiozaki pulled out her phone and dialed a number she now knew by heart. "Midori? I think we may need to have an emergency meeting."

* * *

Toga Himiko liked to think of herself as a stereotypical high school girl.

She liked wearing cute clothes, she spent her free time writing love letters, and she _adored_ hanging out and gossiping with girl friends. To her delight, her current crush was even in the same building where she lived now! It felt almost like she was living the plot of a shoujo manga.

Alas, Himiko was a villain though, and that put a bit of a damper on her social life. The Villain Alliance had no other regularly-present females besides Magne, and while they got along pretty well, the older woman did not particularly care to talk about romance with Himiko. Along with that, Mr. Compress had ordered her to leave Jackie's room when she tried to take him a homemade lunch.

The blonde pouted as she sprawled atop her bed, scrolling through her phone. Her contact list was abysmally short, and her FacePage profile had barely any friends since everyone was so paranoid about adding strangers. At times like these she regretted her path in life, if only for a lack of company. She really hoped that girl Mido-chan talked to might turn out to be a good recruit, having another girl close to her age would be so much fun!

There was one person though. One name on her contact list that made her pause, a mischievous smile curling across her lips. For you see, while Himiko was one of the only two females regularly present at the Villain Alliance's headquarters, they were not the _only_ ones in the organization. There was a third, a woman who had been in the Alliance long before Himiko had even heard its name.

And Himiko knew for a _fact_ that she would want to hear about this.

She grinned as she hit the call button and held the phone to her ear, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Hello?" a familiar voice greeted, a note of fond exasperation in her voice. "Let me guess, you have some hot gossip that can't wait until my next visit?"

"Aiko-senpai," Himiko giggled. "You'll _never_ believe what Tomu told me!"

* * *

**Ochaco's first step to help Deku: do something stupid. She can't do anything while locked up at home after all. (Actually, originally I had Kurogiri nab her from her room on Shigaraki's orders, but having her run away works out WAY better.)  
**

**Fun fact: Todoroki's part was written back when the chapter with the mock interviews came out. It reminded me how socially _oblivious_ he really is. People always focus on how he's quiet and reserved or moody (and also a conspiracy theorist), they forget he totally misses social cues sometimes. Kid isn't nearly as suave as a lot of fan fics depict him. I had a lot of fun writing him giving Kouda a near-breakdown.**

**Also, after last time I've decided to keep the title as is. Thanks for the input!**

**Question for next time: what runaway aliases would you give other members of Class 1-A and 1-B? (Asking partially because I am struggling to come up with names for a bunch of them. I don't think cryptically referencing their Quirks is a good idea if they're trying to keep a low profile.)**


	17. Chapter 17: The Starry-Eyed Woman

Chapter 17

.::Starry Eyed Woman::.

"So, still no answer?"

"No, nothing." Mina frowned as she looked down at her phone, Kumiko and Kirishima crowding her on either side to see the screen as they sat at a table in the very back corner of the lunchroom. After getting that ominous message from Infinity_Girl_8 two days ago, there had been total radio silence on the other girl's end. Mina had sent her several messages probing for what she meant, but she'd gotten no response. All she had was what her online friend had shared before hand.

"Okay, so basically, her dad is really protective and doesn't let her do anything, right?" she said to the others. "So he's been extra-freaked out lately and he kept her locked in her room since we started talking."

"So then maybe her dad confiscated the phone?" Kumiko suggested.

"Or maybe the princess decided she wanted to leave her castle and go on an adventure," Anjou said, sitting on the opposite side of the table as she looked at her phone. Mina perked up, snapping her head to look at the teal-haired girl in realization.

"Wait, do you mean run away?"

"Yep," Anjou said, popping the p.

"Hold on, how do you know her dad didn't just take the phone like Kirameki said?" Kirishima piped up with a frown.

"That last message was pretty vague, but if her dad took the phone he probably wouldn't let her say anything. Stranger danger and all that."

"...Okay, point there," Kirishima conceded. "But still, isn't it kind of a stretch to assume she's just running away from that alone?"

"Why not?" Anjou replied with a shrug, eyes still glued to her phone. "Strict, overprotective dad and worried mother. A house that sounds more like a prison. Home schooled and only allowed to leave the house with her dad or her teacher. I've heard worse reasons to run away."

"Wait, did you send her a friend request and talk to her!?" Kumiko blurted, while Mina and Kirishima both perked to sharp attention. Anjou just shrugged, finally glancing up at them.

"Nah. I just logged into Ashido's account and checked the history."

"Wait, you WHAT!?" Mina blurted. "How—!?"

"Your password is 'Pinkie111,'" Anjou deadpanned, gaze lowering back to her phone. "It took me literally two guesses to get. You need to choose your passwords better." Mina growled in irritation, feeling her eye start to twitch violently.

"Okay, so it sounds like Anjou's voting on her running away instead of the phone getting confiscated or something," Kumiko said hastily before Mina could say anything. "I'm kinda leaning towards that too now."

"Yeah, if she's even real," Kirishima muttered. "She could be lying for all we know."

"She's not!" Mina said with a huff. The thing was, she was now ninety-nine percent sure this was Uraraka. She didn't know if she was _her_ Uraraka, but she said her dad owned a construction company _and_ she could make stuff float by touching it. How many people could say _that_? They hadn't really talked about it though because right after talking about their Quirks Uraraka got called to dinner, and when she came back they ended up venting about chores instead.

"Well, she didn't ask anything about you," Kumiko said thoughtfully. "And she _types_ like a teenage girl. She used a lot of emoji. So, it's probably safe!"

"Thanks Kumiko!" Mina beamed at her best friend, while Kirishima just groaned.

"Kirameki, weren't you banned from using social media back in middle school?" he asked, and Kumiko paused.

"...No," she mumbled, but very distinctly did not look at him. Mina frowned, recognizing the obvious tell that meant her best friend was lying. Okay, so maybe Kumiko wasn't the best one to back her up.

"Anjou?" she asked, turning to her newest friend. "Can you tell Kiri he's overreacting?" Anjou spent tons of time on her phone, so she was probably _way_ more responsible and smart about social media and stuff. _Especially_ since she was apparently a dirty hacker.

"Yeah, no, she seems clean to me," Anjou said. "Her profile isn't loaded with fake teen stuff like most phishers. And Kirameki's right, she _does_ type like a teenager. Didn't seem fake to me."

"Okay!" Kumiko said with a clap. "So she's got Anjou's seal of approval, and Anjou's super-cynical and suspicious of everyone so we're probably good on that front!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kirishima _finally_ agreed with a nod, and Mina almost let out a whoop of victory before he added, "But I guess it doesn't matter much anyway, since she's, y'know, gone now."

"Yeah." Mina deflated at the reminder that Uraraka hadn't responded at _all_. It made her sad to think that they wouldn't be able to talk anymore, and also a little frustrated. They had _just_ started talking, but now Mina's best and only lead to getting home had already vanished.

And wasn't that depressing? Ten days since arriving in this scary alternate world, and Mina still had found nothing to help getting home. She couldn't even say if Infinity Girl actually was Uraraka. Don't get her wrong, she wanted to ask, but asking outright felt weird, because what if she _wasn't_ Mina's Uraraka? Kirishima didn't remember her, so there was no guarantee Uraraka would either.

Randomly knowing someone's name just sent major creep vibes, and Mina couldn't figure out how to ask without being weird. She'd kinda been hoping Uraraka would bring it up first. Now she'd have to wait until Uraraka reached out again, and who knew when _that_ would be?

"I just wish she would tell me what she was doing so I could help," she groaned. "If she was running away, I would've invited her over to my place!"

"You literally started talking to her on Monday," Kirishima reminded her flatly, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"Don't care! We're still friends, and that's that!" She stuck out her tongue as she crossed her arms, effectively ending the topic.

"What would running away even include?" Kumiko wondered aloud. "It's gotta take a lot of preparation. I mean, obviously she needs to pack a bunch of clothes. Walking around in the same outfit forever would feel gross after a while."

"And snacks!" Mina added with an enthusiastic wave of her arms. "Lots of snacks and drinks so she doesn't get hungry!"

"Right! And soap, shampoo and dental stuff! Hygiene is still important!"

Kirishima still looked a bit overwhelmed and uncertain, clearly not expecting the topic change, but after a few seconds he raised a hand. "Uh, what about stuff for a disguise? I mean, if someone missed school with no calls or anything the police would be looking for you, right?"

"Kiri, you're brilliant!" Mina cheered, spinning to face him with a beaming grin. "That's the manly Kirishima I know!"

"Wha—seriously, what is with you and manliness all of the sudden!?"

"You guys are on the right track, but you're still thinking about it wrong," Anjou interjected before the conversation could devolve further. "The change of clothes and disguise are definite necessities, but in a real runaway scenario you'll want to pack as light as possible, so you'd have to nix the snacks. Best bet would be to take a steel thermos or two for water, and cash to buy food as needed."

"Okay, back up," Kumiko said. "What do _you_ know about surviving on the streets? You're on your phone, like, twenty-four seven!"

"Well, for starters, don't just talk in the middle of a crowded cafeteria about running away," Anjou deadpanned, reminding them that they were in fact _not_ alone even if no one was close enough to hear. "That's just advertising you're gonna be vulnerable soon. Second, ditch your phone. Those can be tracked even without Quirks. Get a burner ASAP and ditch any other electronics. Same for credit cards, take cash only."

"...Okay, you're kinda scaring me," Mina said with a frown. "You know way too much about this. Are you okay at home? Do we need to kick your parents' butts?"

Anjou actually snorted at that, and to her surprise even Kumiko snickered and covered her mouth. "Mina, Anjou lives _alone_," she said. "We've been to her place, like, five times now."

Mina blinked in surprise. "We have?"

"Well, you're definitely not faking the amnesia thing," Anjou drawled with a smirk. "My home life's fine. A couple of my friends in middle school had to run away 'cause of their Quirks. Too flashy, got their whole families targeted. I ended up helping them figure out the logistics so they would, you know, _not_ get kidnapped five minutes after leaving, so I know a bit about how this works."

"...Oh." Mina wilted a bit at that, not sure what to say. Sometimes she forgot how _scary_ this world could be. Everything at school seemed so _normal_, aside from Kirishima being super-wimpy and nervous all the time. And classes getting canceled that first day because of a villain attack.

...Okay, maybe she was just trying to ignore the bad parts, but come on, she still had to do _homework_!

"So I guess you're, like, an expert then?" Kumiko asked, her eyes now literally sparkling with curiosity. She then gave an affirmative nod and pounded a fist in her palm, her skin shimmering around the point of impact. "Alright! If Mina ever has to run away, we'll be counting on you to help us!"

"Wait, what?" Mina blurted, twisting in her seat to gawk at her in disbelief. "Why are you singling me out!? Why wouldn't any of _you_ have to run away!"

"Mina, honey, you're pink and can make acid," Kumiko said. "Meanwhile, I sparkle, Kirishima hardens his skin, and Anjou does that flickery-thing with her eyes." Anjou glanced up at her name, her irises doing exactly what Kumiko said. Mina hadn't really paid much attention since Anjou spent so much time staring at her phone, but her pupils were a bright neon turquoise, with a cross-shaped line dividing her dark purple irises into four sections.

"Actually, the flickering is more of a visual tell of me using my Quirk," she commented as the sections flickered white and neon turquoise in a spinning pattern. "Mentalist Quirks for the win." Her eyes stopped the flickering and she turned forward without explaining any further, much to Mina's frustration because now she was _curious_.

"So, yeah, if anyone here's gonna have to run away, it's you," Kumiko said, patting Mina's shoulder consolingly. "Sorry, hon."

"But—but Kiri's Quirk is awesome too!" Mina protested with a frown.

"It's, really not though," he muttered, ducking his head, and then yelped when Mina proceeded to whack the back of his neck with a fierce scowl.

"Kirishima Eijirou, stop moping and man up already! _You can stop bullets with your skin!_"

"How would you even _know_ that!?" Kirishima whined incredulously.

"_Because I done seen it with my own eyes!_" Mina roared.

"When!?"

"That doesn't matter!"

As Mina continued her pep talk Anjou and Kumiko just rolled their eyes as they went back to eating. Some things never changed.

* * *

_Deep breath in, deep breath out._

Izuku paced his breathing as he stood before the door to room number seven, trying to just calm his nerves. He couldn't freak out right now. Today after heavy consideration he decided to enact the first major step of his plan to find a way home, or at the very least make things _better_. And to do that, he first needed to talk to Bakugou.

Firming his resolve, he raised his hand to knock on the door only to stop as he noticed a familiar figure suddenly appear next to him. A tired groan slipped out as he turned to look at Seiko, his shoulders sagging and hand falling limply to his side. "What is it now?" he almost whined, already feeling his energy sap away. The girl never appeared suddenly like this without some reason.

Rather than respond, she simply turned and walked down the hall, prompting Izuku to sigh and follow. Funnily enough he rarely actually saw her _walk_ places—usually she just popped out of the shadows, talked for a bit, and then melted into the darkness once more—so she clearly wanted him to follow. It seemed he had started to get used to some of her oddities.

She led him through the halls towards his room, neatly avoiding running into anyone. Once they reached it Izuku felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, because _the door was open_. He distinctly remembered leaving it shut that morning, he _always_ closed it behind himself. Seiko stepped to the side and nodded to it in a silent gesture to enter, and he hesitantly approached to peer inside.

And was promptly tackled in a hug.

Izuku yelped as he stumbled back, nearly losing his balance if not for the pair of arms hugging him. "Izuuuun, it's been so long!" a female voice whined, and for a horrifying moment he thought he'd been tackled by Toga before realizing it wasn't her voice. The woman pulled away with a bright smile and he found himself gaping at her, mind going blank as he stared at her face.

As far as people went, she didn't look _strange_. Long dark hair with a violet tint to it, no mutations or even an abnormal skin color, a bit on the pale side maybe but still a healthy complexion. But her eyes—they looked like _galaxies_. Dark blue irises with soft clouds of violet and red smeared across them, a smattering of pastel specks twinkling like stars orbiting pure white pupils.

Izuku had seen plenty of unusual eyes, but something about hers felt mesmerizing. Was it part of her Quirk?

She smiled at him for a moment longer before it fell, the corners tugging into a small frown as she stepped back. "...Izuku, you're..." She trailed off, frowning as she looked at him almost... _suspiciously?_ Before he could think of how to respond she placed her hands on his shoulders, her frown deepening as she gazed into his eyes. Once again he found himself paralyzed, lost in the miniature night skies in her irises.

"...Oh," she finally said, releasing her grip. "Are you having an episode?"

Alarm bells _blared_ in his mind, his momentary shock vanishing instantly as he jolted in place. "W-what!?" he sputtered. "What makes you think that?" They literally _just_ met, how did she figure it out?

"Because you obviously don't recognize me," the woman replied, tapping her cheek beneath her eye. "You're staring at my eyes pretty hard, Izun. And it's pretty obvious you're trying to figure out if I have some kind of eye-based hypnotism Quirk."

"...No I'm not," Izuku lied, but even he could tell that came out pretty weak. The woman snorted and rolled her eyes, and was it just him or did that smirk look fond?

"Some things just never change," she murmured, and he _definitely_ heard fondness in her tone. Kind of weird from a veritable stranger, but not nearly as jarring as hearing it from Shigaraki. Still, that didn't change the fact he didn't know this woman. Given she greeted him with a hug and called him by a nickname, he guessed they had a pretty close relationship though. He scoured his mind for the entries in his journals, because surely he must have mentioned her at _some_ point, and it suddenly clicked.

"Wait, are _you_ Aiko?" he asked, eyes growing wide, and she regarded him with a bright, sunny smile.

"Yes I am! Though I'm guessing you didn't suddenly remember me."

"Not really, sorry." Izuku offered an awkward shrug, feeling both awkward and slightly nervous. Despite hearing her name quite regularly he still had _absolutely no idea who the heck Aiko was_. His notebooks had no mentions of her, he didn't know what kanji she used to write her name. Even Seiko at least got some brief mentions in his diaries about when she'd visit and pass on information.

Apparently they must be pretty close though. The fact she managed to clock onto him _apparently_ having an episode without him even saying anything spoke volumes of how well they knew each other. It made him wonder why he omitted her from his notebooks and journals so much.

As if reading his mind (which, _please_ let that be a figure of speech and _not_ her actual Quirk) Aiko shrugged and offered a small smile. "You don't write about me here because you're afraid of someone snooping. I don't like to advertise my connection to the Alliance, even to some of the members. Unfortunately, some of my paranoia's rubbed off on you. Sorry if that confused you."

"...O-oh, I see." That explained it at least a little bit. Izuku had been hesitant to write _anything_ down in fear of one of the Alliance snooping and seeing it, so he could understand his counterpart's own hesitation. He was slightly worried over Aiko's comment about not advertising her connection to the Alliance though.

Did that mean she was a civilian and just affiliated with them, kind of like Izuku, or a full-fledged villain who worked independently? Was she the leader of her own group maybe? What if she operated undercover to get information on other villain groups for the Alliance? Or worse—she worked as a _Pro Hero_ and was actually a secret spy for the villains?

His musings abruptly cut off when Aiko laughed, flinching as she ruffled his hair with a fond smile. "Some things really never _do_ change," she teased, and he realized he must have been mumbling out loud again. She withdrew her hand and folded her arms, her smile still warm. "Those are some good guesses, Izu, but not quite there yet. What I do doesn't really matter, but I can at least promise you I don't spy on heroes and sabotage them or anything like that."

A bit of relief filled him at that. In this world he wouldn't put it past a villain to secretly infiltrate the ranks of Pro Heroes, and with the equilibrium so heavily imbalanced they needed every advantage they could get. Still, the fact she didn't deny any of his other speculations made it pretty clear she still engaged in villainous activity, making his heart sink. He really was the only civilian here, wasn't he?

"But it's surprising," Aiko continued, her smile fading. "Himiko didn't mention you having an episode. How long has it lasted?"

Izuku started to respond but stopped as her first sentence registered. "Wait, do you mean Toga? Why did she call you?"

"To gossip about you running into a cute girl, of course," Aiko responded blithely, and Izuku felt a bit of his soul leave his body. _Of course she did._ Despite his best efforts to protect her, Uraraka seemed to be doomed to be a subject of interest for the entire Alliance. He just hoped she didn't end up getting "recruited" because of his imaginary infatuation with her.

"Please tell me you don't plan on kidnapping her," he groaned, and Aiko laughed.

"Don't worry, I don't think having a polite conversation with someone makes them automatically a candidate for the Alliance. But seriously," she continued, growing serious again. "When did this episode start?"

"Uh, I think..." Izuku trailed off, taking a second to mentally count the days.

"This is the tenth day." He startled as Seiko suddenly spoke up, having forgotten she was there due to how quiet she was. Usually she just sort of vanished when someone else showed up, and he never realized just how grateful he was for those absences until he turned to look at her now. She regarded him with that eerie blank look of hers, her eyes still unreadable as always and sending a chill down his spine.

"Ten days?" Aiko repeated, giving a low whistle. "Definitely breaks the old record, never made it to double-digits before. What was it again, seven days?"

"Yes," Seiko confirmed flatly. "No one else has noticed yet, though it may be because everyone's been busy."

"Wonder how long it'll take," Aiko mused, and Izuku perked up.

"Wait, does that mean you're not going to tell Tomura-nii?" he asked quickly, genuinely surprised, and she shook her head.

"Nah. You always like to see how long you lasted when your memory comes back, I think you kind of treat it like an experiment? Like, how much of your subconscious memories influence your behavior or something like that." She shrugged and Izuku nodded slowly, relief flooding him. So she wouldn't tell anyone. That took a huge weight off his shoulders, he'd rather not deal with the protective side "Tomura-nii" his counterpart described in his journals.

He breathed a large sigh, feeling a lot of tension seep from his shoulders. "Thanks, Aiko-san." Aiko paused, blinking at him as her head tilted slightly to the side.

"Aiko-nee," she corrected, and Izuku stiffened before smiling sheepishly.

"O-oh, I see. Sorry, uh, Aiko-nee."

"It's fine," she sighed, smiling almost feebly. "I get it, I'm pretty much a stranger right now. I'm used to it." Something about the way she said it made Izuku feel a pang of guilt, she sounded so sad. Before he could comment she frowned and added, "But Izuku, do you feel any... different? Like, weird at all?"

"Uh... Different?" Izuku frowned at the abrupt change of topic, unsure how to answer that. "I mean, the amnesia thing is kinda freaky, I guess?"

She hummed, regarding him with a look of mild concern. "You don't feel warm? Or sore anywhere?"

...Okay, now Izuku was getting kind of scared. "Do I have a chronic illness I don't remember?" he asked worriedly, and Aiko quickly shook her head.

"No, no, just..." She trailed off and shook her head again. As she did Izuku noticed for the first time she had a flash of yellow around her neck like a necklace, and when his eyes flitted towards it felt his blood run cold.

_Nope, nope, nope, do NOT freak out!_

Cue internal screaming as he hoped his poker face would hold up and not show his current state of panic. Fortunately for him, a cell phone rang at that moment, making them both jolt in alarm. Aiko paused and fished one from her pocket, glancing at the screen with a frown. "I have to take this," she said. "We'll talk more later, okay Izun?"

"O-okay," Izuku agreed with a hurried nod, and Aiko smiled briefly before turning and answering the call.

"Give me a minute, I was just talking to Izuku," she told the caller even as she walked away. Izuku took the opportunity to rush into his open room, closing the door and leaning against it with a heavy breath. He wrapped his arms around himself as he went through the breathing exercises he learned in class, legs shaking beneath him and trying not to hyperventilate. All he could think of was Aiko's neck, his blood chilling at the mere thought.

_Why did she have Aizawa-sensei's goggles?_

* * *

Nemuri's mouth formed a thin line as she stared into the empty bedroom, the bed neatly made and everything arranged properly on the desk. A light breeze ruffled the curtains by the open window, the only sign of something wrong. Next to her Nezu looked uncharacteristically somber, his beady black eyes narrow and displeased.

"This is quite the unexpected development," he murmured. "There are clearly no signs of a struggle, and all evidence points to her leaving by her own will." Nemuri could only nod, having already reached the same conclusion. She heard a sharp intake of breath behind them, and she turned to see Uraraka-san with watery eyes and face twisted in a mixture of grief and anger.

"Are you suggesting Ochaco _ran away_?" he demanded, his voice wavering only slightly. "Why in the world would she do that! Isn't it more likely she got kidnapped by those—those _villains_ you saw!?"

"There is no solid confirmation yet that those individuals were indeed villains," Nezu interjected before Nemuri could respond. "It may simply be a case of a strong resemblance, or searching for signs where none exists. As it stands, the missing money and thermos makes it seem much more likely she chose to leave of her own volition rather than get kidnapped."

His words did nothing to assuage the upset father's nerves, his hands shaking at his sides as he squeezed them into tight fists. "You promised," he bit out. "You promised you would protect her! That's why we're paying you! That's why we agreed to let her go out with _you_!"

His words cut into Nemuri harder than expected, only years of experience allowing her to maintain her professional demeanor and not wince as guilt washed over her. She had only been the girl's teacher for a short time, hadn't even been able to use her real name with her, but that didn't diminish the bond they'd developed. Her hands curled tighter at her side, her manicured nails digging into her palms, and Nezu's eyes darted towards her briefly before returning to the trembling man.

"And you have our word that we will not rest until she's found," he assured him solemnly. "Even if you weren't paying us, I guarantee your daughter's safety would be our greatest priority." His words didn't seem have much effect at first, the man just continuing to glare at them with heavy breathing. Then his face began to crumble and he sobbed, his hands rising to his face as his shoulders drooped miserably.

Nemuri swallowed thickly, turning back to the bedroom as her heart pounded. She strode into the room with a brisk stride full of business, making her way to the desk where a cell phone sat. She picked it up and pressed the home button, and her breath caught as the lock screen lit up with a picture of Uraraka Ochaco.

Instead of the smiling picture of her wearing her "Uraraka Construction" photo though, the girl now flashed an apologetic smile as she held up a piece of paper with only one word: "_Sorry._"

"Dammit, Ochaco," she hissed, grip tightening around the case.

* * *

**This is one eventful chapter, and one I've been waiting for a long time. At long last Aiko makes her full debut. So many little hints and foreshadowing, so many reveals, and I can't say much without major spoilers.  
**

**Question for next time: who is Aiko and why does she have Aizawa's goggles?**


	18. Chapter 18: High School Gossip

Chapter 18

.::High School Gossip::.

Denki felt ready to explode as he walked through the school on Thursday morning. Classes resumed after the sudden day off with no special fanfare, everyone else apparently used to spending a day taking classes online instead of in person. The most he heard about it was a few people groaning about not being able to connect to the internet due to the big villain attack knocking out the power in some areas for a couple hours, and having to watch the recorded lectures later over dinner.

Instead, a lot of them were buzzing about the two new vigilantes.

"I heard the guy had taser gloves!" one student whispered as he passed a small huddle. "Just shot him with a needle and electrocuted him like, wham!"

"I heard the girl stabbed him right in the arm!" another person said. "Just stone cold!"

"Sounds to me like the girl did pretty much nothing, lame," a third scoffed, and then hissed as someone smacked his arm.

"Her Quirk probably just wasn't good for that guy!" someone else said. "They literally just debuted yesterday, it's way too soon to make judgments!" The chatter faded as Denki moved away, but it didn't quell the pounding of his heart as he heard more whispers around him.

Apparently the woman from last night had a reasonably popular blog among their classmates, and she'd posted the pictures of them tying up the guy with Sero's help. Thankfully she had blacked out Sero's entire figure (not just his face, but his store uniform too) and emphasized he was just a regular civilian, but she had made no effort to hide his and Jirou's costumes. While it didn't seem to be the main topic of the day, the fact _anyone_ was already talking about their debut freaked him out.

He itched to pull out his phone and text Jirou about this, but he knew it would be a bad idea to put their activities in writing anywhere. Even if he just linked her the blog post, it could seriously backfire if one of their phones ever got stolen or someone used a Quirk to read the messages somehow. Jirou and Hatsume had both drilled it into his head to be as careful as possible and not leave any evidence behind.

Still, he was kind of freaking out here. He knew people would talk eventually, but he did _not_ expect to get this much buzz in just one day! He wasn't ready for this yet! What if someone connected his Quirk to him? Electric Quirks were a dime a dozen, but not many were as strong as his. Even if he didn't use it to the fullest power to avoid overloading his brain, they might make the connection anyway.

(He completely missed the fact that a majority of the gossip assumed that the electric charge came from his gloves and the lightning rod rather than a Quirk. And also that most of his classmates here only knew of him as the living phone charger.)

Denki felt nervous as he walked down the halls, his stomach rolling uncomfortably. What if someone confronted him? He _knew_ he wouldn't be able to keep up a good enough poker face, he'd be screwed in an instant! He was seriously the worst option to send to school, Jirou would be _way_ better at keeping her cool. Why was he the one here and not her!?

"Kaminari?"

Denki jolted and turned to see Yaoyorozu, barely suppressing a startled yelp. _Oh yeah, that's why._ He kept forgetting that Yaomomo knew Jirou in this world. The dark-haired girl looked at him with a small frown, arms folded over her chest. "Is everything alright? You seem kind of tense."

Crap, he couldn't let on about the vigilante activity! "Oh, just, uh, thinking about that history test first period," he replied, saying the first thing that came to mind. Then his own words registered, and he felt his soul leave his body. "_Oh crap, there's a test first period!_" He totally forgot about it! He'd meant to cram some more before reaching homeroom, but hearing all the gossip about their debut had made him totally forget.

And now less than five minutes remained. Cue panic. "Crap, crap, crap! I'm totally gonna bomb this! I am so _screwed_!" He began tugging at his hair anxiously, feeling seconds away from crying. He hadn't taken any tests in this world yet, so he had no idea what it would be like. But if it was anything like the tests at UA, he had absolutely no hope of passing.

(He completely forgot that UA had a _much_ harder curriculum than the average school, and that the test in question had been stated on multiple occasions to be open book. Such is the hard life of Kaminari Denki.)

As he proceeded to freak out Yaoyorozu just stared at him, a bit overwhelmed by his sudden shift in mood. "Um, Kaminari?" she asked tentatively. "Are you talking about Murasaki-sensei's class?"

Denki paused his panic session long enough to scour his memory for the teacher of his first period class, having not memorized all of their names yet. "Yes," he confirmed after a moment.

"Um, all of her tests are canceled because of the online day yesterday. Her parents' apartment was near the villain attack, so she needed to take today off to help them settle everything."

"Wait, they are?" Denki blurted, and his entire body just _sagged_ with relief. He was so not ready to take a big test, his mind was already frayed enough from all the vigilante gossip. What an awful way to start the day _that_ would've been.

"Didn't you see the announcement on the portal last night?" Yaoyorozu asked, and it took a few seconds for him to realize that "portal" probably referred to the website the school used to host the online classes. Mainly because he did not, in fact, check the portal. At all. He'd been really hopped up on adrenaline from the vigilante thing, okay?

"Uh, my internet kinda glitched out," he lied, thinking back to some of the non-vigilante-related conversations he'd overheard that morning. Then he realized something from what Yaoyorozo said, and added, "I lived by the villain attack too." And surprisingly, that part _wasn't_ a lie. When he and Jirou left his apartment to start their first patrol the attack had been pretty far away, but the fight had ended on his block. They ended up crashing at Hatsume's warehouse to avoid the police blockade around the area.

Her expression instantly shifted from confusion to outright concern, giving a small gasp and covering her mouth. "Oh, Kaminari, I had no idea! Is your building okay? Did anything get damaged?"

"Uhhh... I don't think so?" It now occurred to him that he actually had no idea if his building was alright or not, per the whole "slept in the warehouse" thing. The news didn't mention any buildings being destroyed though, just damaged, so it was _probably_ fine... right? _Right?_

...He decided not to worry about it and just focus on getting through this conversation. "Anyways, thanks for letting me know the test is canceled," he said, wiping his forehead in an exaggerated show of relief. "Seriously, HUGE weight off my shoulders."

"No problem." She offered him a smile, but then it seemed to become strained. _Uh oh, not good._ Sure enough the smile fell a few seconds later, replaced by a look of concern. "But that aside, I actually wanted to ask if you've heard anything from Jirou." Dang it, Denki KNEW that would come up. It always did.

"Uh, sorry Yaomomo, haven't heard anything," he denied quickly, shaking his head. "Is she still ghosting you?" Yaoyorozu winced at the word "ghost" and he realized that was probably a pretty cold choice of words on his part, but too late to fix it now. Her expression hardened a bit, biting down on her lip as she looked down.

"I haven't heard from her, no. She isn't responding to any of our other friends either."

Now, Denki knew he wasn't the brightest kid out there, but her words still set off alarm bells in his head. He _knew_ no one else had been trying to reach Jirou, she would have mentioned if anyone else had texted her. So Yaoyorozu was lying, but why? "Huh, that's weird," he said with a frown, trying to play it cool. "Maybe she's just really busy?"

"Maybe..." She frowned, not looking too convinced by the argument. Before she could speak further though the warning bell rang, and Denki had to stop himself from reacting to the sound. Saved by the bell, literally.

"Sorry, Yaoyorozu, I need to get to Murasaki-sensei's class," he said. "If she's out today there's probably gonna be a sub, and I don't wanna piss them off by being late."

"Alright, that's fair," she sighed, but then frowned and added, "But if you hear anything, _anything at all_, please tell me. _Please._" Her voice took on a desperate note at the end, her expression losing its brief sternness, and Denki felt a pit of guilt in his stomach. Damn, she really WAS worried for Jirou.

"I'll keep an ear out," he promised hollowly, and hurried off to class before she could say anything else to make him feel even worse. He couldn't help but wonder if avoiding Yaomomo really _was_ the right course of action after all.

* * *

"So you're alright?"

"Yeah, Akino-sensei, I'm fine," Kyouka confirmed with a nod. She currently sat on the couch in Hatsume's warehouse with her laptop on her lap, the screen displaying a live video feed of one of the teachers at school. "As you can see, I'm still alive and in one piece."

"That's good to hear," the man replied with a nod. Akino-sensei, her homeroom teacher in this world, had a strangely hippie-like vibe about him, with long orange hair and even pink-tinted circular sunglasses. His teeth created a stark contrast to the peaceful image he presented though, tiny little spikes with sharp points that glinted whenever he opened his mouth to speak. "Do you know if you'll be able to return to classes anytime soon?"

"Don't think so," she sighed, idly twirling one of her earphone jacks. "My hearing's still super-sensitive. I had to turn off the fan last night because it was too loud to even sleep. No idea how I'd even get through five minutes in a crowded school."

"That's unfortunate," he murmured. "Have you been to a doctor yet?"

"I want to, but I'd need to see a specialist and that would require, you know, going outside. We're trying to find someone who can come check me here, but no dice yet. We're not too worried though," Kyouka added. "This kind of thing happened a couple times when I was a kid, and it always wore off after a couple weeks. It'll probably wear off soon."

Akino-sensei hummed as he nodded. "I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned in your file. You're supposed to mention any special accommodations you might need, Jirou-san."

"I know, but I haven't had a flare-up since elementary school, so we didn't think it would happen again." She shrugged, averting her eyes from the screen and webcam as she scratched her cheek. "I remember my mom said this used to happen to her too, we had the same Quirk and all that, so she probably would've mentioned it in my paperwork. But..." She trailed off, and the silence hung for a moment before Akino-sensei sighed.

"Right, I understand. Well, as long as you're safe and healthy, it's fine. Just keep up with your schoolwork and watch the lectures. I'll see you tomorrow."

"You got it, sir," Kyouka promised with a lazy salute and smirk, and when the video feed went blank she slumped against the couch with a tired sigh. Using her mom's death like that to deflect questioning left a bad taste in her mouth, but at this point she'd started to become numb to it.

In order to avoid raising any suspicion over her extended absences, she'd called the school to claim her hearing had become hyper-sensitive and she couldn't leave home without experiencing sensory overload. The story wasn't _entirely_ a lie, she actually did have similar incidents as a kid that caused her to miss school a couple times. Just, the flare ups didn't last as long as she claimed they did.

As it turned out, Munakata High School had a system to let students still attend classes online without physically attending. Along with emergency closures like the one yesterday, apparently a lot of kids had become shut-ins for one reason or another. It had actually been a massive relief since Kyouka didn't know how long she could call in sick without being suspicious. The only requirement was that the students check in with their homeroom teachers over video chat every morning before class to prove they hadn't been kidnapped or anything.

Talking to Akino-sensei always set her nerves on edge. While he was nice and pleasant enough, she had no idea how well they knew each other so she always worried he'd see through her act or sense something was wrong. So far he hadn't noticed anything different about her though, and now that she'd gotten through another day she wouldn't have to worry about it until tomorrow.

She still had a few minutes before the first class began, so she switched over to the other open tab currently open to a Hero-centric message board. She spent a lot of her free time just browsing locally-based sites and message boards to get ideas on where to patrol, so she'd found out about their overnight popularity pretty fast.

Their debut didn't make front-page news, or news, period. The woman they'd saved ran a popular blog about good bargains in Hosu, so most of the talk about them only existed on boards specifically about Hosu. The amount surprised her, back home she doubted there would be even a single thread about them. Apparently people just _really_ liked to gossip about vigilantes in this world.

Most of the posts she found felt like they were written by teenagers, so she figured there was probably a lot of gossip at school. Kaminari was probably freaking out, she was impressed he hadn't texted her yet. Overall, it didn't really concern her though. Given they'd only made one appearance so far and the whole thing didn't even last a full ten minutes, no one had really figured out anything about them.

Actually, all of the gossip and theories were pretty amusing to read. So far a lot of people seemed to think Kaminari's gloves and lightning rods had been designed with some sort of taser function, not many people guessed the electricity came from his Quirk. The last-minute addition of a wire to help reel in the lightning rod and further guide his electricity helped. That might actually be useful, they'd have to see if they could make that the obvious explanation.

Meanwhile, Kyouka hadn't used her Quirk at all during the actual fight, relying purely on their physical training to dodge the blows. Some people guessed she had a reflex Quirk, or something that let her map people's positions. Not much speculation existed on her yet since they didn't have much to go on. The most she'd done was use her earphone jacks to listen for audio cues to the robber's position, and neither Sero or the woman had noticed or known that.

Thinking of Sero made her frown, squinting at the blacked out blob covering him in one of the photos. This had been the first time she'd actually _seen_ one of their classmates since entering this world, and he had shown no signs of recognizing them. Even if he had just been fooled by their disguises, the way he behaved made it pretty clear he had no hero training. He acted like any regular civilian would.

The realization that yet another classmate hadn't been dragged into this mess left a heavy pit in her stomach. Logically, Kyouka knew they were likely alone. She may not have actually seen her yet but she already knew that the Yaomomo in this world didn't know them, her texts and reported interactions with Kaminari had made that much obvious. But to finally see it with her own eyes just made her feel... _alone_.

They had started the vigilante venture to get gear in order to defend themselves, but now she had no idea what to do next. They still had no decent leads on how to get home, or people who might be able to help. They didn't even know _how_ they'd ended up here in the first place. They'd gone to sleep in their dorms like every night, and the next morning—_wham_! Suddenly they were in another dimension.

As best as Kyouka could guess, it _had_ to be the work of a Quirk, but she didn't even know where to start with investigating it. The most she'd been able to find online were articles about purely theoretical Quirks that could jump dimensions, but no actual records existed of such a Quirk or even one that could prove the multiverse existed. All of it was purely theoretical, and most of the articles were full of so much technical jargon she gave up researching that angle.

Maybe if something weird had happened before this, like they'd been fighting a villain and suddenly teleported to another world. Hell, maybe if she'd even just felt _off_ the day before, but no. There was nothing odd or different about the day before this whole mess started, just another totally uneventful Sunday in the dorms hanging out with all the girls.

Absolutely nothing happened to indicate that the next day might be remotely different from any other Monday.

Looking back she hadn't even talked to Kaminari that day, she'd spent most of the day studying in her room or hanging out with the other girls. The only pattern Kyouka could think of was that she and Kaminari lived on the third floor of Heights Alliance while Sero and Yaoyorozu didn't. So maybe only students on the third floor ended up here. But that still didn't help her figure out _what the hell actually happened_.

Her inability to find _anything_ just left her frustrated, and she had no idea what their next step should be. She didn't have Midoriya's extensive knowledge of Quirks to make any educated guesses, or Yaoyorozu's natural propensity for studying to think of other angles to research.

Thinking of Yaomomo made her purse her lips into a tight line. The texts had largely tapered off, the last one sent on Monday, but that didn't make her feel any more comfortable. No, she had a feeling Yaomomo _definitely_ figured out something was wrong and had changed gears to investigate it from other angles. And that meant she'd probably question Kaminari.

A _ding_ from the laptop's speakers broke her line of thoughts, and Kyouka switched back to the tab with the school's portal. The blank video feed she'd used to talk to Akino-sensei now showed one of the classrooms, the students still chatting lightly as they waited for class to begin. A few of the desks she could see from this angle were empty, adorned by name tags that marked other students who only attended online.

Her gaze lingered on one in particular, eyes narrowing as she stared at the familiar name on it. She pulled out her phone and shot Kaminari a quick text. '_Hey, I remember KK was next to you back at HA but who else was there?_' She hoped he'd recognize the initials of Heights Alliance and Kouda, and would similarly disguise his answers. They hadn't bothered settling on a code for their classmates, but she had to know. Preferably before class started.

Sure enough, a few seconds later she got a reply. '_You mean on my floor? KK, President & Tail Guy. Why?_'

'_I'll explain after school,_' she replied, and put her phone down as the teacher called the class to attention. While the others started to quiet down her gaze strayed to the nametag on the desk one last time, focused on the familiar name: _Iida Tenya_. If she was right and everyone from the third floor got caught up in this, then maybe she knew their next move after all.

* * *

**Big news: someone created a TV Tropes page for this fic! I am in shock and awe, I almost squealed out loud at work when I saw it. It's not too detailed yet but this is the first time I've had someone make a TV Tropes page for one of my fan fics and I'm just so excited! _Ahhhh!_ ****** I feel like as a fan fiction writer I've officially hit all the major milestones, I've already gotten fan art of other stories and now I've got a TV Tropes page for one. This is just so cool and amazing! **I can't link it on FF obviously, but you can find it on TV Tropes by searching Ignite To The Call.**

**Question for next time: what do you think should be Jirou and Kaminari's vigilante names? (For added fun, remember they probably won't be able to name themselves and will have to go with whatever people call them.)**


	19. Chapter 19: Friday Morning Shenanigans

Chapter 19

.::Friday Morning Shenanigans::.

Morning eleven of being in another world, and the sixth full day since arriving in Odawara. Shouto had still made no progress in finding any hints as to Gentle Criminal's (and by extension, Tokoyami's) location, nor had he decided whether he should tell the runaway network about his whole situation. He hadn't made contact with anyone since the shopping trip, so he had plenty of time to think it over and he _still_ couldn't decide.

Maybe if he knew who else might be part of it, he'd be able to make up his mind. The only members he knew of for certain were Shiozaki and Kouda. _Maybe_ Kuroe too, but so far it sounded like he was a bit more disconnected from the organization than the others. He figured it consisted mostly of kids, since few adults would bother to run away from home, but surely they had _some_ adult support besides Kuroe.

Those mystery adults posed the issue. Shouto doubted he'd be lucky enough to know everyone connected to the network from his own world; it was a fluke he even knew Shiozaki and Kouda. In this world trust was a valuable commodity, not something to be given easily, and his circumstances made him even more vulnerable. He absolutely could not take any risks.

But... Didn't that make trusting Tokoyami dangerous too? Shouto knew next to nothing about Gentle Criminal, except that Midoriya had briefly met him in his own world. Which... was probably a bad sign, now that he thought about it. But then again, just because he told Tokoyami didn't mean the other teenager would tell the famous phantom thief. He might be able to convince Tokoyami to keep it secret.

As he mulled over it he almost didn't notice someone sneaking up on him. _Almost_, because he had been keeping his guard up constantly since he first woke up next to _Dabi_ of all people, and so when the person got too close he immediately turned around. "Can I help you?" he asked icily, but paused when he registered _who_ had approached.

An unfamiliar child stood behind him, a young boy with an oversized navy blue sweatshirt and dark blue hair. Cat-like ears twitched atop his head, his eyes a bright mismatched blue and gold. For a moment Shouto just stared at him, unsure what to make of this strange child approaching him when he so obviously looked like a homeless vagabond.

"Yuki-san?" the boy asked, and, _oh_.

"Are you part of the runaway network?" Shouto asked in surprise, and the kid held a finger to his mouth.

"Shh, not so loud!" he hissed, looking around to make sure no one had overheard. Seeing no eavesdroppers, he turned back to Shouto with a frown as he said, "Don't just go around asking people! No one's supposed to know about it!"

"You're... very young," Shouto said, for lack of anything better to say. He looked like an elementary school student, or else a short middle school student. Either way, he looked far too young to be on the streets, _alone_. The boy's ears pressed flat against his head, shoulders drooping slightly as his eyes flitted around anxiously.

"So, you _are_ Yuki-san, right?" he asked. "You look like how Sh—Maria-san described you, and you know about the network, s-so... You are, right?"

"I am," Shouto confirmed with a nod, and while he still looked anxious some of the tension faded from the kid's shoulders.

"C-can I stay with you?" he asked, and Shouto felt his mind briefly go blank.

"...What?"

"N-not forever or anything!" the boy said hastily. "See, we're usually supposed to travel in pairs when we leave the base for safety stuff, a-and my partner. He, he..." He trailed off, ears pressing even flatter against his head as he looked away.

"Did something happen to him?" Shouto asked, and was rewarded with a small whimper and head bob.

"H-his mom showed up and saw him. He told me to run before she noticed me too, s-so I did. And now I have no idea what to do." The kid looked ready to cry, just absolutely miserable as his head hung lower. Shouto noticed a strange bulge moving around the kid's stomach, and for a second he was confused before realizing he probably had a tail wrapped around his waist or something. Made sense given the cat ears.

At this point, his response required no real thought. Helping a lost child had been something they'd covered in class extensively, especially after Eri's recent rescue. So he knelt down to be closer to eye level with the child, the movement drawing his attention back. "Do you know how to get back to the base?" he asked gently, and the boy blinked before shaking his head.

"N-not really... I try not to leave the base too much, but Masa-nii needed to get some hair stuff at this special store and I asked to go with him. I thought it'd be okay, but..." He trailed off, biting his lip and looking ready to cry any moment.

"Do you have a phone?" Shouto pressed.

"I don't have one yet. We figured it'd be fine if Masa-nii had his, but..." Shouto just hummed in understanding, thinking to the burner phone in his pocket.

"I have one that should have their phone numbers, but the battery's dead right now." He hadn't been able to charge either phone last night since he opted to sleep in an abandoned building, wanting to save his meager funds for a night with worse weather. Thinking of the places most likely to have an outlet, he suggested, "We could go to a coffee shop to charge it..."

He trailed off as the kid physically recoiled with a look of undisputed horror, ears flattening against his head. "Or not," Shouto finished lamely after a few seconds, and saw a minuscule slump to his still-tense shoulders.

"I'm sorry," the boy mumbled, looking away with a miserable-looking frown. "I... don't really like those places, last time I went to one bad stuff happened..."

"It's alright," Shouto assured him. He didn't know any other places likely to have outlets off the top of his head, so using the phone to call Kouda or Shiozaki would be out for the moment. That really just left letting the boy join him until they could find another runaway or their base. "I don't really know this town too well," he said. "I'm not sure how much I can help you find your way home."

"But you can make sure no one hurts me!" the boy said, looking up at him with a large frown. "Maria-nee says you protected Kuroe-san, so you're strong and good. I can't just walk around alone! Please, help me!" It was hard to argue with that reasoning. Partially because the kid looked about five seconds away from crying, and he had no idea how to actually handle a crying child. He couldn't even handle _Midoriya_ crying half the time, and this was somehow infinitely worse.

"Alright. We'll try to find the others and get you back safely." The boy's ears perked up briefly before he _sagged_ with relief, a majority of the tension visibly fading from his small frame.

"Thank you, Yuki-san!"

"Can you tell me your name?" Shouto asked, and the boy froze like a deer caught in the headlights. It belatedly occurred to Shouto that the runaways all used codenames, and if this boy didn't leave their base often he might not be in the habit of giving a fake name to other people just yet.

"Um... Everyone calls me Nyaota?" He sounded hesitant, and Shouto blinked slowly as he processed the name.

"Is your real name Naota?" he asked, and the boy's wince essentially confirmed his thought. "Um, you might want to choose a better codename." There was probably some irony there given Shouto still used his _actual_ name as his official codename, but then, his own world didn't have the dangers this one appeared to have.

Those concerns could wait though. He rose to his full height and held his hand out to Naota. "Come on, we should start looking now. They might already be looking for you." Naota bobbed his head as he accepted Shouto's hand, rubbing at his eye with his other arm as they began walking. Worst came to worst he could probably drop Naota off at Kuroe's house later. For now though, he didn't mind having some company.

* * *

Izuku felt more tired than ever as he walked down the street after asking Kurogiri to teleport him to a "safe" alleyway, face tucked into a thick scarf and a new brown beanie covering his hair. It had been a day since he met Aiko, and while he hadn't seen her since then he couldn't stop thinking about the sight of Aizawa-sensei's goggles around her neck.

So far he had avoided looking up any of his teachers in his notebooks out of fear of what he would find. He knew that Present Mic was fine because he still had his show, and there'd been a news article mentioning Thirteen and Cementoss helping with a recent landslide earlier that week, but that was it. He saw no headlines about any of the other teachers, especially an underground hero like Eraserhead.

Why did Aiko have his goggles? Did she kill him? The thought made him feel sick, and he vehemently pushed it aside to try to think of alternatives. Like, maybe she just took it from him as a trophy at some point. Or maybe she was an Eraserhead fan and got a matching pair. Her eyes made him think she had some sort of ocular Quirk, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to need goggles, right?

Even as he struggled to come up with more explanations he felt like he was grasping at straws, looking for even the smallest glimmer of hope. That seemed to be all he did lately. His parents were dead, he lived with the League of Villains, Kacchan was currently a prisoner, Shinsou was _muzzled_—everything here was just so _wrong_!

Izuku wanted to cry. It felt like that was the only thing he really _could_ do right now. He couldn't just spring Kacchan and Shinsou from the Alliance's custody, nor could he work up the courage to look up what happened to his teacher. He had a feeling whatever answer awaited him would leave him broken and numb, just like everything else about this world.

Right now, he just needed a distraction.

Throughout this melancholic internal musing he didn't pay attention to his surroundings, his legs carrying him through the unfamiliar streets almost mechanically. He didn't really plan to go anywhere specific, but somehow when he came to his senses he found himself standing in front of a large, dilapidated-looking warehouse. The sight gave him pause, blinking and looking around in confusion before focusing on the building.

Wooden boards sealed the front entrance and windows, padlocked chains covering the tall, sliding metal shutter on the far end of the building. Rust had eroded the bottom right corner of one shutter though, leaving a surprisingly large hole. Izuku walked over to study it, noticing it looked big enough for him to fit through. He eyed it for a moment longer before getting to his knees and crawling through the gap, fitting through with ease just as he'd expected.

Inside he found a large, open room, sunlight pouring from a giant hole in the high ceiling to illuminate it clearly. Chunks of plaster and broken support beams littered the floor alongside other debris, the floor directly beneath the hole glittering with shards of glass from fallen light fixtures. Something about it gave the room an almost ethereal air, and almost as if in a trance Izuku began slowly walking forward while looking around in silent wonder.

The space had not been totally emptied of furniture. Weather-worn metal shelves still stood tall and scattered throughout the room alongside broken machinery and piled boxes, remnants of the warehouse's active days. As he ventured closer to the center he noticed something dark green in a far corner, partially hidden behind a broken shelf, and he moved to get a better look and found... _Was that a couch?_

Izuku blinked in surprise, changing course while being careful to avoid stepping on anything sharp. When he got closer he saw that the corner had been largely cleared of debris, with a beaten green couch pushed against the wall below a boarded window that managed to provide a decent amount of light. The shelf made it feel just slightly secluded from the rest of the room, its own little space.

His steps faltered, just staring at it. Even now he could see a thick coat of dust covering everything in this corner, so it hadn't been used in some time. Still, something about it felt oddly comforting and inviting, a ball of tension he didn't realize existed quietly unfurling in his chest and leaving him feeling lighter.

For some reason Izuku couldn't fathom he just felt _relaxed_ now, his mind clearing of the incessant worries that had haunted him for so long. They didn't disappear entirely, but he didn't feel seconds away from a panic attack either, able to think calmly and rationally for once. Exhaling softly, he turned to survey the rest of the room, taking in the debris and shelves, before his eyes trailed to his hands.

In this world, he had never gone through the pain he'd experienced in his own journey to become a hero. He had never shattered his limbs taking down the Zero Pointer, his arms hadn't been broken countless times to the point of no repair. His skin remained perfectly unblemished, bearing no trace of the scars from his battle with Todoroki at the Sports Festival or his encounter with Stain.

Yet he could still feel a steady thrum of power beneath his skin, the strength of One For All tingling and waiting to be used. Green lightning sparked along his hands as he clenched them into fists, turning his attention to a nearby chunk of cement with renewed determination. Striding towards it with a purposeful jaunt, he stopped and slid his legs apart to steady his footing.

Then he let Full Cowl activate and threw his fist at the center.

The first time he'd used One For All he'd broken his bones, his body still not ready despite ten months of training. He didn't have that much training here, but the body of this world's Izuku felt much more fit than he'd been back then. He could just _feel_ that he'd exercised and done strength training regularly, his body clearly used to exercise and experiencing only minimal fatigue. On top of that he'd been sure to keep up his training routine since waking up in this world, doing a lot of push-ups and sit-ups in the privacy of his room, but he wouldn't have be able to if this body wasn't already accustomed to it.

The difference showed. Lightning surged along his arm as he called upon two percent of his power, his fist colliding with the cement with a resounding _crack_. A small crater formed around the point of impact, the cracks crumbling and imploding within a few seconds. Izuku pulled his hand back and stared at it in awe, flexing his fingers in wonder.

No pain, no swelling or even bruising. Just the typical soreness from hitting the cement with his bare knuckles. A shaky smile slowly spread across his face, feeling more of the tension seep from his shoulders as he relaxed. His body might not be as strong and suitable as he was used to, but he could still use One For All.

Really, this just raised more questions though. Why—and _how_—did One For All transfer over? Clearly the dimensional transfer hadn't swapped his entire body, since this one lacked all the scars and chronic pain. His body didn't feel _wrong_ or anything, it still felt like it belonged to him, but logically it belonged to the other Izuku. So how did his Quirk transfer over?

Or did his counterpart already have One For All, but it had just been hidden? It was unlikely, but he couldn't discount the thought. But for that to be true, then the most likely explanation would be that he'd been present for All Might's death. That thought made him feel nauseous, unable to help but picture _his_ All Might on the ground with that sunburst scar still fresh and bleeding.

He shuddered and pushed the image away before it could get any more detailed. The specifics of _how_ he still had One For All ultimately didn't matter right now anyway, what mattered was simply that he had it.

Izuku confirmed he could still use it, but he could already tell his control wasn't as good as his own world. Even using two percent left his arm feeling a bit more shaky than he liked; not to the point he thought he worried he'd hurt himself, in fact he thought he could even use up to five percent. It was still just off enough to make him wary of going too high though. Using it without a healing Quirk on hand would be risky, so he'd have to be careful if he wanted to test its limits.

For now, he could focus on building up his strength further. He pulled out his cell phone to check the time. It was only ten thirty in the morning, so he should have plenty of time to do some training today. Nodding to himself, he headed back to the corner with the couch and set down the phone on the nearby shelf before tugging the bulky sweatshirt over his head.

Just as he started to leave he paused though, eyes tracing back to his phone. Hesitating for several long moments, he made up his mind and marched over, picking it up and unlocking it. He pulled up the site for Put Your Hands Up! Radio, the show run by Present Mic. In this world he'd expanded his schedule to air the show three times a week as opposed to just late nights on Fridays, and he pulled up the latest episode.

A pang of nostalgia and warmth hit him as his teacher's voice came over the speakers, enthusiastically greeting his listeners as always. This might not be _his_ Present Mic, but his energy was still the same. Izuku turned up the volume before putting the phone on the shelf and heading to start training.

* * *

It had now been twenty-four hours since Ochaco ran away from home, and the adrenaline rush had yet to fade.

She felt completely unrecognizable as she walked down the street, clad in a baggy blue sweatshirt and red sweatpants bought from the thrift shop. The chalk had faded from her hair pretty fast—it had been a quick, temporary job meant to last just long enough to buy a disguise—and she'd tied her hair into a ponytail and shoved a beanie over it that covered a majority of her head.

She'd topped her thrift store ensemble with a bandage over one cheek, a flower sticker on the other, and a pair of fake glasses she'd found by chance. The only thing she wore that didn't come from a thrift store were her sneakers, and she _really_ hoped no one would recognize them. She'd even bought a new bag, a bulky purple backpack that housed all her new clothing and money.

As it stood, her penny-pinching habits from her frugal lifestyle in her native world served her well. Even after riding a bus out of town and paying to spend the night at a cheap hotel, she'd been left with a good twenty-five thousand yen. It wouldn't be much in the long run, but she should _hopefully_ be able to scrape by long enough to find Deku. Once she did, she had no idea what she'd do next though. Worst come to worst, she might have to join the League of Villains, a thought which made her grimace.

But before any of that, she needed to find shelter.

Dark clouds filled the sky, an ominous rumbling in the distance suggesting rain would come sooner rather than later. She quickened her pace a bit as she glanced at the nearby buildings in search of a café or something, mindful of the rundown storefronts and dirty-looking houses as she tried to look for a good place to ride out the storm. This area just _screamed_ trouble, the kind of place that set her on edge even with her hero training.

Honestly, she didn't think she'd be able to find _any_ place she'd feel totally comfortable staying around here. She only came here because she figured the League of Villains would try to stay somewhere off the beaten path. It hadn't taken long to realize this particular area would probably be a little _too_ obvious though. She'd had to duck away from two police patrols since arriving, so she doubted a group of villains would hang around here.

_Speak of the devil._ Ochaco grimaced as she spied another police car turn the corner ahead, resisting a groan. _Great._ They always cruised by so slowly when they drove around, it worried her they might see her and recognize her. She made a split-second decision and ducked into a nearby alleyway, stepping behind a dumpster. Safely out of sight she quickly tapped her own arm and hopped into the air, letting the lack of gravity carry her to the roof.

Ochaco only floated for a couple of seconds, but by the time she released her Quirk and dropped onto the roof she still felt just a bit queasy. "I barely even used it," she muttered to herself with a frown as she rubbed her stomach. Her tolerance had gotten so high after all her training, so why did it suddenly feel weaker now?

She sighed and shook her head, deciding to worry about it later. For now she should _probably_ get off the roof, preferably landing out of sight of the police cruiser. She turned to check if there would be space behind the building, and then froze as she found herself faced with a heavily scarred man leaning against an air conditioning unit. He looked at her with obvious surprise, a half-smoked cigarette held between his fingers next to his mouth.

For several long seconds they just stood there staring at each other, neither moving or blinking. "Did you just float onto the roof?" he asked, and Ochaco cringed.

"Um... no?" she replied weakly. The man huffed, rolling his eyes as he glanced over the edge of the roof towards the street.

"Trying to run from the cops?" he asked, and Ochaco cringed again.

"O-of course not! I'm not a villain!"

"Never said you were, sweetheart." He took a draw of the cigarette while Ochaco scowled at him, ignoring the twist of discomfort in her stomach. Before she could say anything else though he added, "Smart move though, you could've gotten kidnapped."

Okay, that startled her. "What? What do you—"

A drop of water interrupted her, and she looked up reflexively just in time to see more raindrops falling. Within seconds the sky practically _exploded_ above them, dumping water all over her. She squawked in dismay as she threw her arms over her head, wishing she'd bought a raincoat.

Her eyes were drawn back to the man when he dropped the cigarette and snuffed it with his shoe, flipping his hood over his dark hair. "Come on, kid, let's go before the storm _really_ gets here," he said, and turned to stride towards the back of the roof while Ochaco frowned.

"What?" she asked, and he glanced back at her over his shoulder, his blue eyes almost seeming to glow in the shadows of his hood.

"I mean we need to find shelter, kid," he replied almost lazily. "This storm isn't gonna pass anytime soon. Or do you plan to just stay out in the rain all day?"

Ochaco's frown deepened. "Of course not, but—why would I go with _you_? I don't even know you!"

The man just snorted though, nonplussed by her protests. "Do you have anywhere _else_ to go?" he countered lightly, and Ochaco fell silent, unable to deny it. She didn't know this area at all, and the storm would make her search that much more aggravating. Every second spent outside meant who knows how long to dry off.

Fists clenching at her side, she took a breath and reluctantly trailed after him, pushing down the bubble of unease in her stomach. Satisfied by her compliance the man turned around and walked to the edge of the roof, peering over to gauge a good place to jump. "Can I at least get your name?" she grumbled as she joined him, and he glanced at her from the side of his eye, the purple scar marring his jaw creasing upwards to accentuate his smirk.

"Name, huh," he mused idly. "Names are dangerous on the street. But you can call me Dabi." Ochaco nearly choked on air while he turned and jumped over the edge to land on a pile of garbage bags, barely able to contain her absolute horror. _Oh, crap._

* * *

**Dabi's back. Also, to everyone who's been asking about whether Izuku still has OFA, you now have your answer.**

**Question for next time: how do you think Izuku still has OFA?**


	20. Chapter 20: Small Revelations

Chapter 20  
.::Small Revelations::.

"Almost done?"

"Almost," Ochaco called back weakly, tugging on a new shirt. She grimaced as she did so, finding it just a bit too snug to feel comfortable wearing around a _notorious villain_, but she had no choice. It had taken five minutes to reach the abandoned office building Dabi had set up camp in, and by that time her original outfit had been thoroughly drenched. Not even the contents of her backpack had been safe, the rain seeping through the fabric to leave most of the clothes cold and damp. This shirt had just been the driest thing left.

_Lesson learned, buy a raincoat,_ she thought sullenly as she turned to face the door. _...I really don't want to go out there._ Knowing that _Dabi_ was waiting outside for her to open the door really put a damper on her mood.

Honestly, she still couldn't believe she'd actually followed him after hearing his name. She'd never seen him, but everyone knew that the guy with the fire Quirk named Dabi had been the one to kidnap Bakugou during the training camp. He was _beyond_ bad news, he was one of the most dangerous villains of all. Ochaco felt on edge just being in the same _building_ as him.

But what else could she do? She needed shelter, and more importantly she needed to find Deku. Terrifying as he was, this guy was her best lead.

Lightly slapping her cheeks, Ochaco steeled her nerves and opened the door. She stepped outside and found Dabi in front of a makeshift clothesline made from a rope strung between two columns, hanging up his coat next to her still-dripping clothing. He wore just a long-sleeved shirt now, the sleeves slipping down his arms as he stretched them upwards to expose more of the hideous purple scarring along the full length of his arms.

She had to fight not to stare at them as he glanced back at her, arching an eyebrow. "No glasses or stickers?" he commented, and Ochaco groaned while burying her face in her hands.

"It's not worth it," she whined. The glasses' lenses had been covered in rain droplets, and her attempts to wipe it off just left large smudges that made everything look blurry. Meanwhile, her face had been too wet to get the stickers and bandages to, well, stick. She'd had to use one of her other shirts to dry herself off since she hadn't thought to buy a towel, and given it had already been damp too it didn't really help much.

Dabi just chuckled, turning back to snap a clip over the sleeve of his coat. "Yeah, figured as much. Points for the disguise though, most people don't think that far ahead." Ochaco just nodded awkwardly, still highly wary of the man. He didn't recognize her, did he? "By the way, smart call avoiding that car earlier. Could've gotten kidnapped."

Ochaco almost startled at his words, reminding her that he'd said the exact same thing before it started to rain. "What!? But—but that was a police cruiser!"

Dabi actually snorted at that, turning to face her fully. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean it was _real_. Some crooks have been patrolling the streets around here to look for runaways and other easy targets." Ochaco stared at him in disbelief.

"But—seriously?" she asked. "I mean, aren't _you_ more suspicious?"

"Yes I am," Dabi replied with an air of amusement. "And yet you followed me anyway." Ochaco just glared at him while he rolled his eyes. "Think for a second though. That area's really rough, and yet there was police cruiser rolling around every few minutes. Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

Ochaco felt her glare wilt a bit at that, giving way to a contemplative frown. Now that he mentioned it, it _did_ seem strange she'd seen the police cruiser three times in the span of a few hours. Usually police didn't bother spending so much time in rundown areas like that because petty crime was basically a given. Villains usually didn't even bother going to those sorts of areas outside of networking or hiding, if only because there usually wasn't anything worth stealing or targeting there.

Dabi could obviously see the gears turning in her head, and smirked knowingly. "No police officers would bother patrolling this part of town that often. It's just a ruse by some crooks to make it easier to lower people's guards and get them into the cars. It only started up recently, once the _actual_ police catch on they'll take care of it."

"If you know this, then why haven't _you_ called the police?" Ochaco challenged with a frown.

"Already did," Dabi replied without missing a beat, and she nearly stumbled. Wait, what? Seeing her disbelieving look, he rolled his eyes and added, "Let's just say I've had some encounters with traffickers in the past and I'd rather not have any repeats." Ochaco remained silent at the bitter edge to his tone, her disbelief giving way to something more somber. Somehow, this dimension just kept getting worse.

She averted her eyes with a frown, looking out the broken windows. Through the gaps in the boards she could see the rain pounding hard and heavy, the rhythmic thumps on the walls only adding to the melancholic mood. _Is Dabi even a villain here?_ she wondered distantly. She had absolutely no idea of the man's motives in her native world, hadn't even known his face until now. With all the differences, he might not have reason to turn to villainy in this one.

A flicker of light drew her gaze back to him, turning her head to see him use a lighter to ignite a rag he tossed onto a pile of scrap wood. He'd arranged a makeshift indoor fireplace in the center of the room using stones and the bottom half of what had probably been an oil drum, safely containing the fire. As she watched he sat on a backless bench with ratty leather cushions, probably salvaged from the lobby, and nodded at her as he picked up a fireplace poker.

"Take a seat, kid," he said. "Might as well get warm." Ochaco nodded slowly as she walked over, sitting on another chair with dirty off-white fabric also likely salvaged from the lobby or some other waiting room. It felt weird to sit around a fire on rundown office furniture like this. She fiddled with her thumbs as she stared at the blaze, Dabi pushing around the wood with the poker to spread the flames. "So, what's a girl like you doing on the streets, anyway?"

She bit her lip, stubbornly avoiding looking at him. "Does it really matter?" she muttered.

"Probably not," Dabi agreed. "But it's weird to see a kid your age on the streets alone. Is it a crime to be worried?"

"Are you really worried?" she asked under her breath, still naturally cautious.

"A bit, yeah. Blame the brotherly instinct, you look like you're my brother's age." _That_ got her attention, finally looking at him in wide-eyed surprise.

"You have a brother?" she asked, and he nodded with a faint smirk.

"Yep. Actually I've got two, but the other one's in college and we're not really in touch anymore." He set down the poker and leaned back a bit, eying her from the corner of his eye. "Speaking of, have you seen any kids with black hair and an eye patch running around? About your age, a little taller than you?"

Ochaco frowned and shook head. "No, I haven't. Sorry." Biting her lip, she decided to take a chance and pressed, "Did—did he go missing?"

Dabi gave a half-laugh at that, the scar around his lower jaw pulling upwards as his smirk grew. "Little over a week ago we woke up, and he suddenly just iced me over and ran off."

"Iced you over...?"

"Have you ever been trapped in a miniature iceberg?" Dabi deadpanned, and Ochaco blinked, her thoughts flitting back to Todoroki and Sero's match at the Sports Festival. A shiver ran down her spine, for once not from fear but just from how cold that glacier had felt even from the stands.

"No, but it sounds cold."

"Believe me, it's even worse when you have scars like this," Dabi drawled, sounding faintly amused as he tapped his cheek. His smirk then fell as he sighed, hunching forward with his arms resting on his knees. "Been trying to find him ever since, but no luck so far. Kinda a long shot you'd know him, but worth a try."

The villain sounded tired, not to the level Aizawa-sensei usually did but still enough to tug at Ochaco's heartstrings. Under his casual demeanor he really _was_ worried, she could tell it wasn't an act to get her to lower her guard or sympathize with him. "Do you have any idea why he suddenly ran away?" she asked, but he shook his head.

"Not a clue. When I say we woke up and he suddenly iced me over, I mean _suddenly_. I wasn't even awake thirty seconds, hell probably not even ten, and then I was trapped in an iceberg and the brat took off running. By the time I managed to come to my senses and melt the ice, he was gone." He reached into the pocket of his jeans to pull out a phone, scowling at it as he added, "And to make it more annoying, the brat's been ignoring my calls. I _know_ he still has his phone and doesn't always turn it off, but he's not answering."

"Have you tried texting him?" she suggested, and Dabi shook his head.

"No way. Text leaves an even easier trail to trace than phone calls." He glanced at her almost speculatively, adding, "Any chance _you_ have a phone?"

Now it was Ochaco's turn to shake her head. "Sorry, I left it behind. I only left yesterday, and I haven't gotten another one yet." The ease she admitted it caught herself by surprise, not expecting to be so open. _What happened to being careful!?_ Judging by the way Dabi straightened her response caught his interest, his blue eyes sparking intently in the firelight.

"That recent?" he mused. "With the way you're dressed, I figured you'd been on the streets a bit longer."

"I raided a lot of thrift stores for clothes," Ochaco admitted, her shoulders drooping tiredly. "I wanted to make sure I looked as different as possible. The only thing I kept are my shoes and a water bottle."

"Think you'll have a lot of people looking for you?" Dabi asked, and when Ochaco remained silent he huffed and rolled his shoulders in a loose shrug. "Eh, don't feel pressured to answer that. Like I said earlier, you've done a pretty good job with the disguise so you probably don't have to worry about that at least. But that said," he added, that intense gleam returning to his eyes, "why _did_ you run away?"

Once again she bit her lip, hesitating to answer. She knew she shouldn't be so open with him, he was a villain in her world and a stranger _at best_ in this one. She had no idea of his motives, and less than zero reason to trust him. But he was also a member of the League of Villains in her world, and might be her best lead to find Deku yet. That lone thought made her hands clench into fists atop her lap, her resolve settled.

"I'm... looking for a friend," she started slowly. "His name's Midoriya Izuku, but I call him Deku." She glanced at him as she spoke, searching for any recognition of his name—_either_ name. But Dabi just inclined his head slightly as if to silently tell her to go on. Her heart fell a bit as her gaze returned to the fire, realizing he didn't know Deku. The chances of Dabi being able to help lowered drastically, but she still pushed on anyway.

"We hadn't seen each other in a while, but a couple of days ago I suddenly saw him while I was out shopping. And at first I was so excited," she admitted, a small smile playing across her lips. "We're so close, he's one of my best friends. But then I tried to get his phone number, and he suddenly started acting all cagey and kept saying no. And then..." She trailed off here, frowning as she glanced at him. "Do you know Shigaraki Tomura?"

_That_ one he recognized, the man sitting straighter and his eyes narrowing. "You mean the leader of the Villain Alliance?" he asked lowly, and Ochaco had to fight to not show her surprise. Villain Alliance, huh?

"Y-yeah, I guess so," she confirmed weakly. "I don't know for sure, but... He came up to us, a-and said he was... he was Deku's brother." She frowned, turning back to the fire as she pulled her knees to her chest. Just remembering that brief encounter, even if she hadn't known the danger at the time, left her feeling chilled. "And I _know_ they're not blood related, that he's an only child, but Deku called him Tomu-nii. They left pretty soon after that, and I didn't realize who it was until later."

She paused then, not sure where to go from there. "When I got home," she said after a few seconds, much quieter than before, "I found an article saying that Deku's parents died a long time ago. He ran away after that, and they never found him. I can't help but think if the Le—the, the Alliance, took him, for... some reason."

After that she fell silent, no longer knowing what else to say. Dabi didn't say anything right away, only the crackling of flames filling the silence. "...Shit," he finally said, and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "Yeah, no, this is _way_ above my pay grade. But are you _seriously_ looking for this kid even knowing all that?"

"He's my friend," Ochaco defended with a frown. "I'm not going to leave him alone!"

"You realize you'll probably be recruited as a villain though, right?" Dabi countered, meeting her eyes with an icy gaze at sharp contrast with his fiery Quirk. "I don't know what kind of Quirk you got, but if it's anything remotely useful the Alliance will snap you up."

His words made Ochaco's breath catch for a moment, giving voice to the thoughts she hadn't dared dwell on too much, and her mouth pressed into a thin line. "I know that, but I don't care," she declared, meeting his gaze with a steely resolve of her own. "If it means I can help Deku, I'll do anything."

For several long seconds neither of them spoke, just matching each other's gazes with steely looks. Ochaco could see Dabi searching her but didn't falter, almost glaring back at him in challenge. After a long time he finally sighed, breaking the one-sided staring contest as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna regret this," he muttered, making her perk up, and before she could ask what he meant he met her gaze once more. "Nabu."

"H-huh?"

"Nabu," he repeated. "In Shizuoka prefecture, right by the border to the Kanagawa prefecture. I don't know where they are, but that's where the Alliance has their main headquarters."

Ochaco sat up ramrod straight at that, her eyes widening. "What? How do you know that?"

"I've got a friend tied to the Alliance. Not a full member, but close enough." Dabi shrugged, turning back to the fire while Ochaco sat even straighter.

"You know someone in the Alliance?" she pressed, leaning forward. "Who? What are they like?"

"Doesn't matter," Dabi replied sharply, and she immediately cut off any further questions, instead remaining silent as he continued. "I was thinking of heading out there to see if my brother headed there, or at least maybe get some help looking for him. It shouldn't take more than a couple hours by train to reach it. You can probably catch one when there's a break in the storm and get there before sunset."

Ochaco listened intently, slowly sinking back into her chair. "Nabu, huh," she murmured to herself. Even without researching the League (or, Alliance, apparently), she knew the police wouldn't have any idea where they were based. Nabu wasn't a major city by any means; she'd only heard of it in passing from one of her middle school classmates who'd moved from there. Hardly the kind of place you'd expect a major villain organization to set up headquarters.

Hands curling into fists, she raised her head to look at him. "Thank you," she said as sincerely as possible, and he snorted.

"Don't thank me. You have no idea what you're walking into."

_I probably know more than you think,_ she thought, mind flitting to her class's numerous close calls with the League, but she kept the remark to herself. "Um, can you tell me about your brother?" she asked instead. "You've helped me so much, I can at least keep an eye out for him."

Dabi huffed, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. "Not much to say. Kid's pretty quiet, real awkward if you talk to him. We've been calling him Tatsuo, but doubt he'd keep using it. Knowing him, he's probably going by Yuki or something ice- or snow-related like that. Brat never was too good at coming up with names."

Ochaco felt her own mouth quirk into a small smile at the fond exasperation in his tone. She could tell he really cared about his brother, she could see it in that faint smile, so oddly gentle in contrast to his ragged-looking face. At the same time she felt a small pang of grief for him though. She couldn't help but wonder what his brother was up to in her own dimension, and if maybe his absence had to do with his motivation for joining the League of Villains.

For everything wrong with this world, maybe some details were better after all.

* * *

While walking around Odawara in search of the runaways, Shouto learned many things about Naota.

The boy was nine years old, and had a Quirk which gave him feline characteristics—specifically, cat ears and a tail. According to Naota that was the main extent of his Quirk though, and that they gave him no particular advantages. He didn't have claws or enhanced reflexes, or an enhanced sense of smell or anything like that.

If anything, his Quirk actually proved more problematic than helpful. His cat ears _did_ give him more sensitive hearing, which made him more prone to sensory overload and couldn't be blocked with headphones due to their shape. Finding clothing that accommodated his tail also proved troublesome, since while stores _did_ provide clothing for a variety of body types and Quirks, tails were actually somewhat rare in their society and had enough variation to require specific tailoring. Meanwhile, he had all the dietary restrictions of a cat, so he had to be careful about what he ate.

The largest problem though?

People found his cat traits _cute_, which seemed to cause only more problems.

"I remember people always offering me candy and stuff," the little boy told him gloomily, his hood pulled over his ears and eyes trained on his feet. "The teachers told us about stranger danger and stuff so I never took any, but it happened to me way more than other kids. Other people would say how _cute_ my ears looked. And towards the end, sometimes people would even just—pick me up and run."

"In broad daylight?" Shouto asked in surprise, and Naota nodded almost vigorously as he looked up at him.

"Yeah! Like, I'd be walking to school, and then some random guy would just grab me and run away! I always kicked and screamed a lot so people would come and help, but this one time no one did. I only got away because I managed to bite his arm and make him drop me, and then I ran!" His mismatched eyes had a fire in them, a glimmer of pride in his ability to escape, but Shouto still found himself frowning.

"Why didn't your mother walk you to school then?" he asked, and the boy flinched and looked away, ears visibly drooping beneath his hood.

"Momma did a couple times, but she said it was annoying and she had to go to work. She and dad had to spend a lot of money to get me special clothes and food so I just tried not to be too much trouble. All the police reports took up so much time, too..."

At this point Shouto didn't like the picture Naota painted of his parents. He only had experience with Endeavor, and he certainly didn't like the man, but for all his faults he _had_ cared a good deal about their safety. One particularly powerful memory had been when he got them together shortly after his seventh birthday, so he could drill the warning signs of human traffickers into _all_ of his children.

"_You might not _all_ become heroes,_" he had told them, gazing at Fuyumi and Natsuo in particular, "_but there are some criminals who are far more heinous than any I will ever encounter on a patrol, and who will never dare show themselves in front of a Pro Hero like myself. If you're lucky you will never encounter these sorts of people, but if you do, you need to know what to look out for._"

The warning had stuck with them all, and after that Shouto had made a point to always be just a little more wary of strangers who seemed suspiciously nice and friendly. He didn't get left alone in public often, but now and then he would be briefly separated from his father or siblings while running errands. During that time he _never_ approached strangers, always working to find his family as fast as possible.

One of his happier childhood memories had been a celebratory dinner one night after Natsuo had stopped a little girl from following a stranger, complete with his brother's favorite cake for dessert. He remembered Natsuo had even been flustered by the attention and claimed it wasn't a big deal, but Endeavor had countered that he'd saved a little girl from death or even something worse. "_Any life saved is worth celebrating,_" he'd said gruffly, one of the more surprisingly positive values Shouto could recall.

Really, for all his complaints about the man's parenting, Shouto couldn't deny that Endeavor was still a good hero and made sure to encourage heroic behavior from _all_ his children. (The cynical part of his mind pointed out it was probably more to encourage Shouto, as if to say, "_See, if your siblings can do this much, imagine what _you_ can do,_" but he quickly silenced it.)

He pushed the memory away for now, refocusing on Naota. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but his story matched all the warning signs of human traffickers Endeavor had drilled into them. It made him feel uncomfortable to consider, but it made sense. "How did you end up here?" he asked, and to his surprise Naota suddenly brightened, his ears perking beneath the fabric of his hood as he stood straighter.

"Aya-nee brought me here!" he replied happily, almost bouncing on his feet as he beamed at Shouto. "This guy tried to pick me up and run away like always, but then Aya-nee showed up and flew at him with this jump-kick like, _wham_! Pow! He just went down! And so then she took me home, and after talking to momma and dad, they said I could go with her! And so then she brought me here, and I've been living with everyone else ever since!"

"I see," Shouto hummed, mentally applauding this "Aya-nee" for her actions while condemning the boy's parents. No good parent would ever hand over their child to a complete stranger. It was incredibly lucky she was a good person. "Will I get to meet this Aya-nee later?"

At that Naota deflated, though he looked just sad as opposed to downright miserable like before. "No, she doesn't actually live here. She says her job is too dangerous to come here much. I haven't actually seen her since then..." Shouto frowned again, but before he could press for more information Naota perked up and added, "But it's okay, because I have a bunch of other really awesome brothers and sisters now!"

"I see," Shouto said with a slow nod. The fact that Naota hadn't actually seen this "Aya-nee" since then did ring some alarm bells, especially since she apparently had a "_dangerous job_" Naota didn't know, but the runaway network itself didn't seem to be a threat. He had to admit, this had to be one of the better possible outcomes for the boy given he'd left with a stranger.

Still, this was another point against telling the runaways about his situation. It reminded him he had no idea who was connected to their little network. For all he knew it could be a front for a trafficking ring, slowly gathering up runaways in one location to make it that much easier to snatch them up when the time came. Actually, he should probably mention that possibility to one of the older members the next time they met just to be safe.

Hopefully that would happen soon. He'd noticed some birds had begun following them a while back, and while he'd been a bit wary of jumping to conclusions it had been going on long enough he believed it must be intentional. It had already been close to two hours since they started looking after all; by now Naota's absence _must_ have been noticed and it made sense that they'd have Kouda use his Quirk to look for him.

Sure enough, Shouto could hear someone jog their way from the left—the side with the eye patch, annoyingly—and turned to greet them. He paused though, because while he did see Kouda approaching, he did not see Shiozaki's increasingly familiar head of green vines. Instead he saw a blond teenage boy with blue-gray eyes—a very familiar boy.

"Naota, there you are," he called, and Naota's ears perked up, head turning to face the newcomers with a bright smile.

"Nei-nii!" he called, and pulled his hand free from Shouto's to rush over to the pair. Shouto watched the boy all but tackle the blond in a hug with a cool gaze, feeling an almost reflexive sort of wariness towards him. While he still did not know all of Class 1-B's members, Monoma Neito had left a far stronger impression than most with his constant challenges and taunts towards his class.

He had his usual smug-looking smile as he returned Naota's hug, one arm wrapping around his back while the other patted his head. "There you are. You really worried us when you didn't come back." As he spoke Kouda walked over and bent next to him, at which point Naota peeled himself away from Monoma to tackle him in another hug. Kouda murmured something too quiet for Shouto to hear, and Naota pressed himself even closer.

"I'm sorry, but Masa-nii's mom showed up and he told me to run and..." Naota mumbled a rambled summary of how he'd ended up with Shouto, voice slightly muffled by Kouda's sweatshirt. Shouto didn't really pay attention, his focus quickly turning to Monoma as the other teen approached him, making him tense minutely.

"You're Yuki-san, correct?" he asked, his tone as grand and magnanimous as always even as he kept his voice soft. "Maria and Rockfish told us all about you. Thank you for helping Naota-kun, we were quite worried when he and Namo didn't come back." Shouto remained on edge for a moment, waiting for some snarky comment about how he could do better or something else of the sort. When no such remark came though, he felt a bit of confusion and only raised his guard further.

"It was no problem," he replied with a short nod. "I had nothing else to do today, and he seemed worried." Almost as an afterthought, he asked, "The other person he was with... Namo, I think you said? Is he okay? Naota said he saw his mother and told him to run...?"

At that Monoma sighed, folding his arms with a small frown. "Unfortunately, it seems his mother found him, or so Rockfish has heard. Namo, like many of us, ran away to protect his family because his Quirk got a lot of attention from both heroes and villains, but his family didn't agree with his decision. His parents never stopped searching, regardless of the risk it posed to them."

"I take it that's common?" Shouto asked. If he ever ran away Endeavor would definitely look for him, though maybe not for the same reasons Namo's parents did. Monoma nodded, turning back to him.

"A large majority of us chose to run away to protect our families, yes. Why? Is your reason for being here different?" He cocked his head to the side ever so slightly, a sly sort of glint in his eye as he commented, "I mean, I suppose they _must_ be since you're searching for Gentle Criminal."

Shouto could almost feel his emotions shutter at the sly dig for information, his face smoothing into a blank mask as he met Monoma's gaze squarely. "My reasons for running away are none of your business," he intoned flatly. "The same applies to my search for him. Besides, I'm more interested in his partner Phantom Shadow."

Monoma hummed, eying him for a moment longer before finally shrugging. "I guess you are correct about that," he allowed, and Shouto blinked in surprise, expecting a more confrontational response. The blond then smiled again, extending a hand. "Forgive my rudeness, I haven't even introduced myself yet. My name is Kaitou, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Shouto stared at his outstretched hand dumbly for a moment, trying to figure out his angle. This version of Monoma seemed oddly polite compared to what he was used to, and it was starting to really confuse him. Why wasn't he ranting at him about the superiority of Class 1-B—

_Oh, wait. That's why._ He and Monoma did not presently attend UA in this world, so of course Monoma didn't have the one-sided class rivalry fueling his actions. To him, Shouto was just another random homeless runaway who had helped watch over one of the kids.

Relaxing a bit now that he finally understood the boy's strange behavior, he nodded and shook his extended hand. "It's nice to meet you too," he replied, trying to cover up his awkwardness. Monoma just smiled pleasantly as they released their grips, glancing at his palm briefly.

"I see," he hummed to himself, and something about it sent a chill of foreboding down Shouto's spine. Monoma's hand soon fell to his side, meeting his gaze once more. "I look forward to working with you, Yuki-san."

"...Likewise," Shouto responded after a moment, suddenly feeling wary and on edge again. Something told him he just made a big mistake, but he didn't know why.

* * *

Hizashi opened the door to the recording booth with a sigh as pop music streamed over the speakers, his shoulders sagging tiredly. The room outside the booth was empty save for the lead audio engineer at the soundboard and Nemuri, his fellow hero draped over an armchair in the back of the room with her phone. "We've got about five minutes before this set finishes and I sign off," he told her bluntly. "Do you want to go over it here, or go somewhere else?"

"Somewhere else will be best, I think," Nemuri sighed after a moment's thought. "I need some more detailed input this time, preferably _without_ listening ears. No offense, Masuda."

"None taken," the sound engineer replied smoothly. "I don't want to hear about hero business anyway."

"Smart man," Hizashi snorted, and ducked back inside the recording booth with a sigh. He dropped back into his seat and pulled the bulky headphones back over his head, letting them rest loosely around his neck for the moment as he distantly listened to the last song of the current set.

Today had been long, longer than usual. The studio had asked him to record some extra broadcasts in advance for the upcoming holidays, wanting to air episodes every week day in December instead of just three times a week. He'd still do those three slots live, but it was easier to record the rest in advance. After today's session he'd need to take it easy and rest his throat. Good thing he'd recorded today's broadcast, too.

After this, it would be straight to work with Nemuri. They'd enlisted help from Sir Nighteye and one of his sidekicks to scour Uraraka Ochaco's phone and laptop for any evidence the second they got their hands on them. The girl's decision to run away weighed heavily on Nemuri, having become quite attached to her during her time as Suimin. It had been so encouraging to see even one of their colleagues return to teaching, and though they hadn't met her, her abrupt disappearance left a heavy gash in all of the former UA faculty's hearts. If Shouta were there—

_No._ Hizashi banished the thought before it could fully form, shoving down the ugly ball of grief and anxiety that always accompanied thoughts of his best friend. The song was coming to an end, and he pulled the headphones back over his ears, letting the beat finish before taking a breath.

"That's it for today's show, everyone!" he announced, characteristic smile plastered on like usual. "Thanks for tuning in, and remember to Put Your Hands Up! I'll be back on air tomorrow!" He leaned closer, his smile dimming just slightly as he finished, "And, last but not least, to my favorite listener. I don't know where you are or what you're up to, but I hope today's been a little better than the rest. I hope I'll see you soon."

The recording light switched off, and he removed his headphones for the last time.

* * *

**So much in this chapter! In this AU if it wasn't already obvious, Dabi is 100% Todoroki Touya. The recent manga arcs heavily imply this to be the case anyway, to the point I'll be legitimately surprised if it isn't the case. In any event Ochaco has yet to make the connection. It's a pretty big leap to assume a villain is the older brother of one of your friends and also the son of the Number 1/2 Hero, and she has no idea of the Todoroki Family Drama.  
**

**On that note, a little glimpse at a peaceful dinner in the Todoroki house. I've mentioned before that I fully acknowledge Endeavor was abusive, but I also don't like people villifying him in every single aspect of his life. The man's a pretty good hero or he wouldn't have gotten to be Number 2 no matter how strong he is, and I can see him instilling those values in all of his children even if he didn't expect them to be his successors. Whether the dinner was to genuinely reward Natsuo or try to encourage Shouto to try harder, I'll leave to you to decide. (For the record, Touya would be "dead" by the time the dinner happened.)**

**Also: hi Monoma! A lot of people figured he'd be targeted for his Quirk, and you're all absolutely right! Kaitou is a reference to his Hero Name, "Phantom Thief", since Kaitou is a direct translation to that. It also happens to be a regular name too, hence why he can get away with using it. ****Now if only Todoroki could remember his Quirk. Pretty sure he never actually saw Monoma use it in the Sports Festival since Monoma used it mainly against Bakugou's team, and during the training camp I don't think ever worked together.  
**

**Question for next time: do you think Sir Nighteye's team found anything?**


	21. Chapter 21: The Bubble Finally Pops

Chapter 21

.::The Bubble Finally Pops::.

Something was wrong with Ashido Mina.

Anyone could tell after spending long enough around her. It all started when she'd shown up to school on Tuesday and announced to the world she had "sudden weird partial amnesia." Ashido was admittedly a prankster and this would be far from the wackiest thing she'd done to try to get out of a test, but her acting wasn't _that_ good. She genuinely didn't know where the classrooms were or even the names of any of their classmates except Eijirou and Kirameki.

So yeah, that was weird enough. However, what Eijirou really couldn't get was her sudden obsession with _him_.

"Kirishima-kun, let's _go_!" she called, laughing as she dragged him down the street. "The movie's gonna start in like, ten minutes, and we need to hurry before they shut the doors!"

"Ashido, slow down!" he whined, trying to pull his wrist free from her grip. "And let go! Seriously, you're practically crushing the bone!"

"Then just use your Hardening to block it!" Mina shot back with a grin. He shot her a half-hearted glare but she just laughed it off, turning forward as she continued dragging him along. Her vice grip remained tight and almost painful, leaving him sorely tempted to follow her advice and use his Quirk to block it, but he bit back the urge. Behind him he could hear Ashido's friends sigh, an increasingly familiar sound.

"Still energetic as ever, huh," Kirameki-san muttered with a smile. "Guess some things never change, amnesia or not." Anjou snorted next to her, the teal-haired girl smirking down at her cell phone.

"Ashido being anything but hyper would violate a law of nature," she drawled, tapping away at the screen like always. "You should know that by now, you've known her the longest."

"Are you going to be on your phone in the movie?" Eijirou asked, twisting his head to squint at her. "Pretty sure you're not allowed to take that in." He'd never seen Anjou without her phone outside of class, and part of him seriously wondered what she was doing on it all the time. (The other part was too scared to ask.) The girl just grunted, waving one hand dismissively while _still_ typing with the other one.

"Eh, I can disconnect for a couple hours. Movies should be stimulating enough."

"The Ouroboros series is _always_ stimulating!" Kirameki declared, her skin sparkling as she grinned at her. "I can't believe the third one's finally out! I thought it'd be in production hell forever! And this one's even got Sosaki Shino in it!" Now her _eyes_ glittered, her hands clasped together as she stared up at the sky. "Sosaki-san is so beautiful and _mysterious_, she's like the female version of tall, dark and handsome!"

"...R-right." Eijirou quietly turned around as she began babbling excitedly about the actress, his shoulders slumping as he sighed. Between Ashido's assertive exuberance and Kirameki's tendency to go on sparkle-laden tangents, he felt a bit overwhelmed and out of place with this group.

Before last week he'd barely interacted with any of them, not even Ashido. They didn't know each other that well despite going to the same middle school, having only been in the same class first year. The only reason they spoke at _all_ was because they ended up coincidentally living in the same apartment building after getting into Sakakura High. That alone had apparently been enough for the pink-haired girl to latch onto him following her amnesia though, and now he was being forced to go to the movies with them.

_I haven't even seen the other Ouroboros movies,_ he thought mournfully, but withheld from saying as much aloud. Something told him it'd just make their reactions _worse_.

At least it distracted Ashido from her new online friend. She _still_ hadn't responded since that ominous message on Tuesday, which had made Ashido grow increasingly moody. She kept looking at her phone with this slightly agitated look, and even tried to pressure them all into sending "Infinity Girl" friend requests. After watching her fidget all day long, Eijirou would happily go see the movie if it meant a break from that. It was Friday anyway, so it'd be a nice way to end the week.

As they walked along though he heard an explosion, making all of them freeze. Immediately they spun to see smoke rising not too far away, all four of them growing tense and wary. An anxious atmosphere settled over the street, other pedestrians also stopping and their voices melding into a low hum. "Villain attack?" Anjou muttered lowly.

"Probably," Eijirou agreed, just as quiet. Another explosion sounded, slightly closer, and more smoke appeared. This time they could hear screams, clear and full of terror. Kirameki fidgeted uncomfortably, stepping back slightly as her hand reached for Ashido's as the pink-skinned girl stared at the smoke wide-eyed.

"We need to go," she said. "It might be the same guy from last week." Ashido startled at that, frowning at her.

"Wait, he wasn't caught?"

"No, the heroes and police had to rescue people from the building he collapsed so he got away."

"Judging by that smoke, that'll probably be the same case this time," Anjou added. "Forget the movie, that looks like it's two streets over at the most. We don't want to get caught up if he runs this way." Ashido didn't respond, just continued staring at the rising smoke with an unreadable look in her eyes.

"Ashido?" Eijirou pressed, tugging on her arm. "Come on, we need to go."

"No." The word caught him by surprise, all three turning to look at her with varying levels of incredulity.

"No?" Kirameki repeated. "Mina, what do you mean _no_?"

"I mean, _no_," Ashido said. "You guys go home, but I'm not running away." And with that she tore away from Kirameki's grip and took off towards the direction of the smoke, leaving all three of them standing in shock. Soon enough Kirameki regained her senses and she jolted, her eyes widening in alarm.

"Mina!" she yelled, lurching after her, but Anjou grabbed her arm and jerked her to a stop.

"Don't go after her, idiot!" she scolded. "You'll just get hurt!"

"_I'll_ get hurt?" Kirameki snapped, whirling to look at her with a frantic expression. "What about Mina? She's going _right to the source_!"

"Yeah, but she at least has _acid_ to defend herself! All you can do is _sparkle_!"

"_That's still bad!_"

As the two continued hissing at each other—Kirameki in growing panic and Anjou in frustration—Eijirou just looked between them and Ashido's figure fleeing towards the source of the explosions in shock. _What the hell is she doing?_

Then, _what the hell am _I_ doing?_

His legs began moving before he even noticed, and suddenly he realized he was racing after Ashido. _Seriously, what am I doing!?_ "Kirishima?" Kirameki shouted, and he twisted his head back as he kept running.

"Go home!" he yelled. _This is a bad idea._ "I'll grab Ashido and drag her back!" _I'm just going to get hurt._ Yet even as doubts ran through his mind he turned and ran harder, his eyes trained on the familiar pink figure rushing around a corner ahead. People ran past them in the opposite direction, a bad sign if he'd ever seen one, but Ashido didn't seem to care.

Screw it. He'd just grab her, drag her away and get the hell out of there before anything could happen. They lived in the same building, that should be _fine_. They'd be _fine_.

Then he turned the corner and his breath caught in his throat.

The scene before him looked like something out of a disaster movie. One of the store fronts had been reduced to a pile of rubble and broken glass, the windows of several other nearby stores completely shattered. Meanwhile jagged cracks lined the road, the front end of a car sinking into a large hole that still radiated smoke.

However, even more notable was the man in a gas mask standing next to a sobbing woman kneeling on the ground, a tight grip on her arm as he faced down a local hero while brandishing a knife.

"Don't come any closer!" he hollered. "I'll tear out her throat!"

_Shit. Shit shit shit._ Eijirou's heart pounded as he stared at the man, suddenly highly aware that coming here was a Bad Idea. No, he knew that all along, but now he was absolutely _certain_ of it. The woman looked terrified, her face red and her leg twisted the wrong way. As he stared at the scene in horror he noticed movement near some of the rubble, and he turned to spy a familiar pink figure skirting the edges of the scene. _Ashido!_

With a scared glance at the villain he quickly scampered after his classmate, catching up to her with surprising ease. "Ashido!" he hissed, grabbing her arm. "What are you doing!" The pink-skinned girl twisted her head to look back at him, her yellow irises glinting with a fiery determination that seemed to glow against the black parts.

"I'm getting him out!" she whispered, gesturing to the rubble. When Eijirou looked again he startled as he suddenly noticed a man pinned beneath it, nearly camouflaged against the stone thanks to the coating of plaster dust covering his body. He had a dazed look in his eyes as he stared at the sky, and Eijirou could see red staining where his legs were covered by a particularly large piece of stone.

Wrenching her arm from his grip, Ashido slid over to the man and dropped to a crouch next to him, turning to look at Eijirou and gesturing wildly for him to come over. Startling, he hesitated but quickly joined her, shooting a worried glance at the confrontation unfolding nearby. "This is a bad idea," he whispered anxiously.

"Would you rather leave him to die?" Ashido hissed back, and Eijirou felt his mouth go dry. He glanced down at the pinned man only to wince. Now that he was closer he could see he had jagged shards of glass and cement embedded in his arms and torso, blood lazily seeping from the cuts and mixing with the dust to create a ghastly sort of sludge. The dazed expression on his face was even clearer, and as Eijirou looked down he realized that the whiteness in his face wasn't _just_ from the dust.

He swallowed harshly, his heartbeat picking up as he slowly looked at his classmate. "What can we even _do_?" he whispered roughly. He wasn't the smartest guy, but even he knew how serious blood loss could be. They didn't have any way to help him with _that_.

"We can get him out of here," Mina said, gesturing to the rubble. "I'm going to melt it with my acid so it's lighter. You try to lift it off and keep it from touching him!"

"Wait, _what_?" Eijirou's voice rose a notch as he reeled back in horror, his eyes bulging in disbelief. "But what if your acid hits _me_?"

"Your Hardening can block it!"

"Ashido, how do you even _know_ that—"

"Kirishima, _please_," Ashido cut in, her voice hoarse and choked, and Eijirou reeled back and clamped his mouth shut. He could see the beginning of tears forming in her eyes as she looked at him, her irises wavering with anxiety and fear. The sight made his stomach sink, swallowing harshly once more.

_She's just as scared as I am. She's just as lost and confused._

The thought made something harden in his chest, his expression growing firm. Nodding once, he willed his skin to harden as he reached to grab the rubble. Relief visibly flickered on her face as he moved to help, and her expression quickly grew serious and focused as she turned to place her hands atop the cement chunk.

Acid began to seep through the pores on her palms, the stone sizzling underneath her hands and beginning to melt. A drop of it rolled over the edge and onto Eijirou's arm, making him wince, but to his surprise and relief he didn't feel any pain even as it melted through his sleeve. So his Hardening DID block her acid. Once again he wondered how she knew that, but now wasn't the time.

He whined lowly as he positioned his arms to block a few more drops from hitting the man, his heart pounding anxiously all the while. As the acid ate away more of the stone he could feel the rubble grow lighter, Ashido moving her hands along the surface to spread the melting so it wouldn't be able to eat through it entirely.

After what felt like hours but was probably closer to thirty seconds it was light enough for him to lift it, and Eijirou heaved it off the pinned man with a grunt. He winced at the loud noise as it crashed into some of the other rubble nearby, making him suck in a sharp breath and look back at the villain.

Thankfully, he seemed distracted by the hero. More than that, the hero seemed to be _intentionally_ drawing his attention away, pointedly circling towards the opposite direction to force him to turn away from them and his terrified hostage. Exhaling shakily, Eijirou turned back to see Ashido scrambling to brush away the smaller pieces of rubble from the man, her face twisted with horror as her eyes flitted towards his legs.

When Eijirou followed her gaze he blanched, his face draining of color as he quickly averted his gaze.

_ He'll live,_ he told himself silently, sounding just _slightly_ hysterical even inside his own brain. _He might need to stop wearing shorts, and maybe get a fake leg, but he'll live._

Ashido hesitated at this point, seeming to be at a loss as to what to do as she stared at the man. As he looked at her Eijirou felt a sudden rush of frustration, and bit his lip as he turned back to the man. Without only a second's hesitation he grabbed his arms, nodding at Ashido. "Grab his legs and help me lift him!" he hissed quietly, trying to avoid getting the villain's attention. Thankfully she seemed to snap out of her stupor before nodding and hurriedly grabbing his legs, grimacing as she did.

The pair moved slowly, carefully lifting him off the rubble. The man groaned in pain, his eyes pinching shut, and they both froze and exchanged panicked looks. When he didn't make any further sounds, they continued to carefully lift him. They didn't dare rush it, each step painfully slow as they continually glanced at each other to measure their pace. Eijirou felt almost stunned by how well they synchronized their movements, matching each other to minimize jostling the man's injuries.

Still, it was far too slow for his liking, and soon enough he heard a bloodcurdling scream that made them freeze. Slowly Eijirou turned his head, and he couldn't stop the startled gasp as he saw the hostage crumpled on the ground next to the villain, her body far too still as he towered over her with a bloody knife.

_Did—did he just _kill_ her?_ As Eijirou struggled to process this new turn of events the man slowly turned his head towards them, making his blood run cold. _Shit._

"Well, I still have a few other options," he remarked almost lazily, his voice crossing the distance far too clearly. Even as he spoke Eijirou noticed something dark near the villain's free hand, and his gaze snapped towards it to see his index finger and thumb pressed in a circle, a dark film forming in the hole as he sharply raised his hand. Bubble-like orbs flowed out one after enough, something smoky visible swirling inside them as they _flew right towards them_.

"SHIT!" he screamed, nearly jumping in horror. He and Ashido both dropped to the ground while somehow maintaining their hold on the man, who released a strangled-sounding groan at the sudden jerking motion. By sheer luck their movements synchronized well enough to avoid outright dropping him, and Ashido released her grip so his legs gently touched the ground. As soon as her hands were free she sprung up and spun to face the incoming bubbles, gritting her teeth as she hurriedly rolled up one sleeve and swung her arm.

Acid sprayed from her skin in a thick arc, spreading through the air like a sheet just before the first bubble reached her. Eijirou heard a series of loud explosions as the bubbles popped and winced as he saw the acid wall waver slightly, but as it fell down he was stunned to see all of the bubbles _gone_. Did her acid actually just block them!?

Even as he stared he saw the hero lunge towards the villain, jaw unhinging as glowing golden needles shot towards the bomber. The villain responded with a ferocious wave of his arm that created more explosive bubbles, and as the needles hit them a long string of explosions triggered.

Eijirou thought he could hear Ashido scream as his own hands flew to cover his ears, cringing at the sheer _volume_ of the blasts. For something so small, the bubbles had a lot of power in them, and the needles only seemed to amplify their power. He soon found himself cringing for another reason as several stray explosive bubbles zoomed their way—more specifically, directly towards the fallen man next to them.

Mentally cursing (or maybe he did out loud, his ears were ringing too hard to tell the difference), he instinctively hardened his skin and ran towards the man. As he jumped in front of him he silently screamed yet again '_What the hell am I doing!?_' and prayed to whatever forces existed that his Hardening could block the explosions as well as Ashido's acid had. The bubbles seemed to move in slow motion as they approached, inching ever closer, and he squeezed his eyes shut just as the first one hit his arm.

Eijirou _screamed_, the sound fueled more by adrenaline than pain as he recoiled from the blast. Hardening dampened the power of the blast significantly, keeping it from actually _hurting_ him much to his shock. It failed to fully block the concussive force though, and he felt as if he'd been punched with a brick. Two more explosions hit his body as he braced himself, each one just as hard as the first, but nothing too damaging.

Noticing there were less explosions than he'd expected, he opened a single eye and startled when he saw a sheet of acid falling in front of him. He turned his head to see Ashido standing to the side, a frantic look in her eyes as her arm hovered in the air. For a split second their eyes met, just silently communicating their shared shock and terror.

Then a loud scream sounded, breaking the moment. As the acid wall fell away they saw the villain crumpled to his knees, glowing gold needles protruding from his right arm and leg. The hero wasted no time in racing towards him, delivering a powerful uppercut to his jaw that sent him reeling back.

As the villain fell back Eijirou felt a rush of relief, the tension fading from his shoulders as he collapsed to his knees. The hero turned to rush their way and he let himself release a sound of pure relief, shaking his head wildly. Thank All Might, it was over.

(It was, in fact, not over though, but only just the beginning.)

* * *

**OMAKE**

_Meanwhile in Musutafu..._

"**_NOOOOOOOOOOO!_**"

The Quirk-enhanced scream reverberated through the studio, interns and managers alike flinching and covering their ears. The more experienced employees just heaved tired sighs, used to their most popular host's antics. Still, Nemuri found herself worrying as she spun to look at the door to the studio where Hizashi had entered only moments ago. They'd been on their way out when he had to go back to grab his headphones, what could have happened in that short time?

She held her breath as the door opened, but instead of her blond friend Masuda stepped out, still rubbing his ears and grumbling under his breath. She peered around him into the open doorway, and through the glass window of the recording booth she could _just_ glimpse the top of Hizashi's messy bun as he knelt on the floor. The sight made her heart sink, because with a scream like that he must have been upset.

"What happened?" she pressed Masuda, and Masuda met her gaze with the eyes of a man who'd seen far too much BS in one lifetime to care anymore.

"His headphone cord snapped off when he went to unplug them. They're officially dead." Nemuri winced, sucking in a sharp breath of sympathy.

Inside the recording booth Hizashi just cradled his now-cordless headphones against his cheeks, tears streaming down his cheeks as he mourned their loss. "My baby," he whimpered. "My sweet, precious baby...!"

After five years of faithful service throughout all his shows, Yamada Hizashi had removed his headphones for the last time.

* * *

**You know, everyone predicted the messages from Uraraka would be what finally got Ashido moving. Absolutely no one predicted this. ****I've had this scene written up for a while now, I found a Google doc with parts of this dating back to October 2018. For the record, I actually don't know if Kirishima's Quirk can block Ashido's acid, it's never been addressed in canon, but for the sake of this story it does here! On that note, it was fun writing from Kirishima's perspective. Ashido's finally rubbing off on him!****  
**

**The omake was inspired by reactions to the ending of the last chapter. I swear I did not mean for it to end so ominously, he'd just been recording in the studio all day.**** Mic absolutely won't die or get seriously injured anytime soon, don't worry!**

**Question for next time: what are the most creative/interesting Quirks you've seen a one-off villain have? (Asking because almost everyone seems to go for the "knives/blades for hands" gimmick. There's so many more possibilities out there****! Let's get some more variety!)  
**


	22. Chapter 22: The 1-A Vigilantes

Chapter 22

.::The 1-A Vigilantes::.

Among the still-active Pro Heroes in Japan, the name of the Nighteye Agency brought certain expectations.

Sir Nighteye was the epitome of professional, a hero who always carried an air of stoicism and preparation. His crisp silver suit never showed wear or tear no matter how hard he fought, and his yellow-rimmed glasses and sharp golden eyes perfectly matched his even sharper intellect. He could analyze a situation at a mere glance, seldom needing to rely on his Quirk to come out on top of any opponents he engaged.

Beneath that stern, cold exterior though was a man who valued humor above nearly everything else. Though he himself rarely sported a smile, as All Might's former sidekick he knew the power and reassurance a smile could bring. As Japan fell further and further into darkness without the Symbol of Peace, Sir Nighteye espoused this value to all of his employees.

The work values of the Nighteye Agency could be summed up in two words: Professionalism, and Positivity. All employees were expected to handle their jobs with as much efficiency as possible, while also making sure they never lost the ability to smile no matter how grim reality became. After all, if even the heroes stopped smiling, then how could the public ever feel safe again?

Perhaps the best example of these values was the General Analysis Team—or as their colleagues liked to fondly call it, the "Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department."

The first half of the nickname came from the sidekick Figment, whose Quirk External Daydream allowed him to cast a large-scale illusion over any enclosed space. While he _could_ use it in more practical ways like hiding a room's content or making there appear to be a small army of people waiting for an ambush, he preferred to use it more... _creatively_.

On this fine Saturday morning, anyone who entered the communal office space would find themselves in what appeared to be the inside of a lava lamp. Glowing bubbles of orange and pink plasma drifted around the space lazily, their shapes slowly morphing to form puffy 1s and 0s in a mockery of binary code. The air itself had a pinkish tint, sometimes fluctuating with other colors around particularly large bubbles of lava.

This was actually rather tame by Figment's standards, but the two and a half coworkers currently present in the office appreciated him toning it down so they could focus on their own work. Moashi Juzo, better known as Centipeder, was currently huddled in a corner reviewing a case file on a string of attacks against people with mutation Quirks. Meanwhile, the table at the center of the room was occupied by Sayonaka Saki, (_slightly_) better known as Lady of the Night.

Tall with narrow brown eyes and a brown bob styled to frame her face and accentuate her sharp features, Saki almost always carried an air of professionalism. Donning a black lacey mask and an outfit that Miss Joke once called "_business woman meets pirate,_" she would dispatch villains with a brutal efficiency that could put even Sir Nighteye himself to shame. Her skill and dedication had led to her becoming one of his most trusted colleagues and subordinates by the age of twenty-seven.

Which made her office's state all that much more comical.

Like everyone else at the Nighteye Agency, Saki had her own unique brand of humor and plenty of personality quirks (pun _absolutely_ intended). Anyone who opened the door to her personal office would find quite possibly the most disorganized space in the entire building, her desk and shelves littered with countless trinkets and random baubles. Even the walls had been plastered with everything from photos to drawings to magazine clippings, to the point people had bets about its actual color.

The cluttered mess in her office was such a sharp contrast from her apparent serious demeanor that it honestly made some people laugh, thinking it was a joke. Then when they'd watch her casually stroll inside and sit at her computer, their amusement would soon turn to dawning horror as they realized no, she actually _used_ this space and she was in fact a Grade A hoarder.

Frankly, most people considered it a minor miracle she could find _anything_ there. Of course, Saki knew exactly where to find whatever she might need in there at any given time, and she kept all those things for a specific reason (_yes, even the burnt-out lightbulb, Genkaku_).

It did, however, leave her with very little space to actually _work_ in her office. Hence why she sat in the communal office space today, idly swirling a pen around one of the illusory lava clouds while she turned over a phone in her other hand. It had a rather feminine case, pink with white moons and stars printed on it—a perfect fit for the profile she'd been given on Uraraka Ochaco.

The request from UA's remnants to investigate the girl's phone had been quickly pushed to the top of their investigation pile. Their agency had a good working relationship with them after all, but more than that, a teenage girl's life might be on the line. Uraraka had contact with Midoriya Izuku and Shigaraki Tomura just that very week, which meant she'd likely be a target of the Alliance.

Nezu had managed to get into the phone the same day she disappeared, as Uraraka's mother happened to know the password. From there the investigation had hit the first roadblock, since she'd cleared her recent search and browsing history. It seemed she'd researched how to make it as hard to trace her as possible, another point in favor of her running away willingly. The information could be recovered of course, but it would take some time.

However, amusingly enough, she hadn't cleared _everything_. Random checks of various popular sites turned up a saved login for FacePage. Upon logging in, he'd found a single friend and conversation in her messenger history, which brought Nezu to the second roadblock.

While the account hadn't had its friends or chat history wiped, they had no way of actually finding out _who_ "Alien_Queen_Pink" was. FacePage had become _very_ privacy-oriented in face of the mounting dangers and public fear, to the point they hired people with Quirks that could encrypt the information and data on multiple levels. Each layer of additional Quirks on top of the site's built-in security measures made it that much harder to bypass it whether through Quirks or hacking.

In short, no one—villain _or_ hero—could directly trace the anonymous accounts back to their sources. It was a revolutionary security feat that could only be accomplished with the infinite possibilities and combinations of Quirks the modern world provided.

Requesting the information directly from FacePage would take too much time. Just getting the warrant approved could take more than a month, and it would still take them at least two weeks to go through their _own_ security. And unfortunately for them, Uraraka's friend had not given enough details to positively identify herself.

And that was where Saki came in.

Like her employer, Saki didn't have an obvious or flashy Quirk. In fact, hers might be one of the plainest ones out there, one people would never associate with a hero—and also half the inspiration for the second part of the GAT's nickname.

_Psychometry, the ability to glean information about a person through physical contact with them or an object they possessed._

Even now images flowed through her mind as her fingers curled around the phone, her pen slicing through a pinkish-orange zero as she brought it back down to the sketchbook. A strange-looking girl stared up at her, with bright irises that contrasted with dark sclera and small, crooked horns protruding from her forehead. She etched in more lines around her hair, adding an air of shagginess to the already messy outline.

As she put on the finishing touch she frowned, letting the pen slip from her fingers. "Hey, Mail, mind playing soundboard for a bit?" she asked.

"Always," came the blithe response from directly above her. She tipped her head back to see the spectacled male floating above her, stretched out as if laying on his stomach with his arms pooled around his head while he peered down at her. She scooted her chair back a bit so he could get a better angle to look at the drawing, watching his torso dip down to study it while his legs continued to float above him.

Mail stood out at Nighteye Agency in a different way than most, and not just because he looked like a foreign-born teenager. Instead of a brightly colored costume or a neatly pressed business suit he wore a rumpled, dark blue polo shirt and faded slacks, his socks a dirty-looking gray-white. His natural coloring didn't stand out much more, with shaggy, dark brown hair and even his naturally tan complexion an almost dusty shade much less lively than typically associated with the sun.

His creamy-white-orange eyes probably provided the brightest spot of color he had, but few people noticed them the way Saki did. They had a curious glint as he looked at the drawing, slowly spinning to "lie" on his back as he rubbed his chin. "It's pretty detailed," he mused. "You got a pretty good look at this girl, huh?"

"Yeah, there was a lot more than just a photo. Those came from live memories. Her skin and hair is pink, by the way," she added casually. "Her irises are yellow, same with the horns. Uraraka's main impression of her is 'loud,' 'fun' and '_pink_.'"

Mail hummed, his gaze flicking towards her upside-down. "You even got her impressions on another person? That's rare. So either her online buddy _really_ reminded her of someone she knew, or they'd met?"

"I'm not actually sure," Saki said with a sigh, leaning back in her chair with a frown. "Something's really odd about this case." Psychometry didn't let her automatically know everything about an item's history. Instead, it picked up on the thoughts of the person holding the item, starting with the ones with the strongest emotions.

The first impression would always be the strongest, and after that more information would trickle into her mind slowly. The longer she maintained physical contact the clearer they would become, but even the strongest thoughts and memories tended to give her only brief glimpses of images that didn't last more than half a second. Generally she wouldn't have enough material to be able to make such a detailed sketch.

For some reason though, this girl's face had featured very prominently in Uraraka's thoughts while holding the phone. Saki had glimpsed her in a myriad of different outfits, but hadn't paid much attention to them since she'd focused on her face. "I think she sometimes wore a school uniform," she murmured thoughtfully, closing her eyes as she squeezed the phone. "It had... a blazer, I think?"

When she opened her eyes again Mail was sitting upright, looking at her almost intensely. "Are there _stronger_ memories?" he asked.

"There are," she confirmed, setting the phone down on the table. She pushed aside the sketchbook and dragged over another open notebook, picking up the pen to begin jotting down thoughts and observations. "She was also thinking about Midoriya and Shigaraki a lot too, mostly Midoriya. She had a lot of worry and guilt associated with him. Something about... a plane crash?"

"Flight 174," Mail murmured. "His parents died in it."

"Is that what happened? Here I figured his mom died in a fire or something." Mail snorted and her own mouth twitched into a brief smile before quickly fading, becoming serious once more as she wrote '174'. "There's one other word that keeps surfacing. Quirkless."

"He _was_ diagnosed as Quirkless," Mail mused, and his voice grew bitter, an ugly scowl twisting his face. "It's why the search efforts never really took off. No one cares about Quirkless orphans." Saki's grip tightened around her pen, her mouth pressing into a tight line. _Yet another case of discrimination, huh._

"This is how you end up with dangerous trained child assassins hell-bent on taking down society," she groaned, rubbing her forehead. From the corner of her eye she noticed Moashi startle at his table and shoot her a particularly quizzical look, but she ignored him to refocus on Mail. "Okay, that part sucks, but she seemed weirdly stuck on it."

"Like, bigoted stuck?" he asked flatly, but she shook her head.

"No, like surprised. Like she expected... something else. It confused her." Mail's scowl softened to a more regular frown at that, crossing his arms and slowly spinning in the air as he mulled over it.

"The Midoriya family, or at least Inko and Izuku, never took a vacation outside of Musutafu. The closest thing would be some day trips to attend some hero conventions or meetups. Then from what Nezu said, the Uraraka family didn't get their big financial break until two years after he went missing. Before that they never had the funds for a proper family vacation. I can't think of a single opportunity for them to have met."

As Mail mused aloud to himself Saki paused, something suddenly clicking. "_He wasn't a kid,_" she said slowly, and he stilled, his expression sharpening at her sudden switch to Russian.

"_She has no memories of him as a child?_" he asked, his own Russian slightly stilted but soon flowing much more naturally off his tongue than Japanese. Saki shook her head, a heavy frown forming.

"_All of her thoughts of him have him as a teenager._" She dropped the pen, grabbing Uraraka's cell phone and squeezing it tight. More images and thoughts flowed through her mind, pictures and feelings swirling faster and faster—_Midoriya, fear, admiration, concern, villains, mall, Kamino, summer, robots, floating, falling_—

She had to drop the phone at that point, hissing as she clutched at her head. Her brain felt sore and jumbled now, the speedy influx of images overloading her mind. As she pressed tighter in hopes the pressure could ease some of the aching she could hear the others get up from their desks to hurry over, Mail no doubt hovering closer as well. "Saki, give me a number," he ordered softly.

"Six," she gritted out. Six was relatively light by her standards, a very bad headache but not yet a migraine, but that didn't ease the pain in the moment. She could hear Moashi's steps approach her deliberately from the right, making sure she could hear him and avoid startling her.

"I believe you should take a break, Sayonaka," he suggested gently. "I could tell you were concentrating your psychometry more intensely even from halfway across the room. Pushing yourself won't do any good."

"Listen to the centipede man," Mail agreed sagely. "He is older and wiser than us both."

"Yeah, he's in charge of this team for a reason," Figment snorted. Saki just hummed quietly, massaging the area around her eyes as she tried to slow her thoughts. It was easier said than done though, unable to stop thinking about the dozens of brief glimpses of Uraraka's thoughts and feelings. All tiny pieces of a puzzle that still had many larger ones missing.

Something strange was going on, even more strange than anyone else could imagine.

* * *

"My babies are ready!"

Kaminari choked on the Electric Limeade soda he'd been drinking while Kyouka only barely managed to avoid knocking her laptop off her lap as Hatsume burst through the door from her workshop space. The eccentric inventor looked particularly manic at that moment, her pink dreadlocks more unkempt than usual and her eyes so wide they could barely see her irises.

"Did you get _any_ sleep last night?" Kyouka asked while Kaminari coughed and hacked next to her.

"No time for sleep, babies needed to be finished!" Hatsume responded with missing a beat, turning to drag two mannequins behind her. At some point that week she'd procured two mannequins attached to wheeled stands to host their costumes during her tinkering. Kyouka legitimately had no idea when or where she'd gotten them, they just seemed to magically appear one day and gave her a heart attack.

Their costumes looked largely unchanged from the last time she'd seen them. They hadn't found a need for any major alterations, just some minor changes to the equipment Hatsume came up with after reading up all the theories and gossip and one minor cosmetic detail. It still surprised her Hatsume finished it so fast though.

"Should we test it before patrol?" she asked, folding her laptop and setting it on the coffee table.

"Already handled it!" Hatsume replied without missing a beat. "The changes don't actually use your Quirks so I took care of all the testing myself!"

"I-is that why—_hack_—y-your hair's all frizzy?" Kaminari asked breathlessly, his coughing finally starting to subside. At that point Kyouka realized that Hatsume's hair did indeed look a bit more frizzy around the edges... and just _slightly_ burnt.

"They're perfectly functional and will not explode!" she replied, totally ignoring the question and raising completely new concerns. "Just put them on and go show my babies to the world!"

"Only if you take a nap while we're gone," Kyouka said flatly. And so half an hour later found them outside the warehouse on their third-ever patrol, now fitted with their slightly remodeled gear and _probably_ ready to face whatever came their way.

Contrary to their first outing, vigilantism turned out to overall be fairly dull and mundane. They'd done their second patrol the previous evening, starting at eleven and returning to the warehouse around one thirty. In that time Kyouka and Kaminari got no action other than stopping a single mugger, and that hadn't even required a fight since the mugger just ran the second he saw them. They returned earlier than planned because they just didn't have much to do.

After thinking about it, Kyouka figured it wasn't actually all that surprising. While crime _was_ more rampant in this world compared to their own, the _types_ of crime were different. It either tended to be small fry like muggers, or big stuff like attacks in the middle of the city—way beyond what a couple of teenage vigilantes could handle. Hosu also still had a couple of publicly operating heroes like Ingenium on patrol, who typically handled bigger villains.

Honestly, it was pure luck they'd gotten to stop that convenience store robbery on their very first outing. It didn't take long for Ingenium to arrive after the police had been called, and that was the general pattern for his responses to robberies like that.

Maybe that one quiet patrol worked to their advantage though, because it gave Hatsume time to upgrade their gear before their next big debut.

"Do you _really_ think this stuff won't explode?" Kaminari asked doubtfully as they trailed through an alleyway.

"Probably," Kyouka responded with less confidence than she liked. She raised a hand for him to be quiet before he could whine, picking up on three sets of footsteps nearby. Peering around the edge of the alley, she saw a woman striding down the street rather fast while nervously glancing over her shoulder at the pair of men walking behind her. They weren't facing her so Kyouka couldn't tell much, but something about the way they moved left a bad taste in her mouth.

She pulled back and held up two fingers to Kaminari to signal two hostiles. He nodded as he took a chance to peek at them, but tensed and then made a nonsensical hand signal before bursting into the street. Kyouka mentally cursed as she moved to follow but stopped short. In the time she hadn't been looking the men had made their move, one's arm split apart into fleshy-colored extensions that wrapped around the terrified woman's body and mouth.

She ducked back into the alley before they could notice her. No point exposing both of them at once. "HEY!" Kaminari shouted, and the trio turned to look at him in surprise. Now that Kyouka had a better view of their faces, she got an idea of their Quirks. The guy holding the woman looked average enough aside from his arm splitting up and stretching like bands of cloth, but the other had scales around his eyes and smoke furling out the corners of his mouth.

"Who the hell're you?" the smoking man scoffed, turning to face Kaminari with a scowl.

"The guy who's about to kick your ass," Kaminari replied. While he talked to the man Kyouka retreated deeper into the alley with a glance at the roof. Climbing up there would make too much noise, so she decided to circle around the building and exit from the next alleyway down for a pincer maneuver. It took her almost a full minute, but she trusted Kaminari to be able to distract them.

By the time she emerged back onto the street Kaminari was holding his own pretty well, just telling off the guys. "Seriously, can't you just pick up a girl normally like everyone else?" he ranted. "Randomly grabbing her off the street is a serious turn-off, dude."

"For the last time, we don't want to freaking date her!" the split-arm guy growled while his companion had even more smoke pouring from his face. With their attention firmly focused on Kaminari, Kyouka glanced at her remodeled amplifier jacks to plan her next move. The core functionality remained the same of course, but the rumors about Kaminari's gloves having a taser function had seriously inspired Hatsume.

In her words: What better way to hide their Quirk than to pretend they didn't have one?

The idea sounded crazy at first, but it made sense once Kyouka figured out what she actually meant by that. They could supplement their actual Quirks with gear that mimicked other Quirks, adding red herrings to the speculation. Since no one had more than one Quirk, people would naturally connect it to the gear even when they actually used their Quirks. They might even believe them to actually be Quirkless.

At least, that's what Kyouka _figured_ Hatsume's statement meant. She hadn't actually said anything else before holing herself up in the lab, and only gave them a bare-bones rundown on how the new equipment worked before they left. Right now she could think of one feature that would be useful, and she grimaced at the thought but pushed past it.

Catching Kaminari's eye, she tapped her ear and got a subtle nod from him, and she slowly bent down to run her fingers against her boots. It didn't take long to find two buttons side-by-side near the top of the left boot, and she took a breath to brace herself. Her earphone jacks plugged into her sound-canceling headphones, the world becoming a bit more muffled around her, and she pressed down.

An ear-splitting _shriek_ erupted from the speakers, making her wince. Noise-canceling headphones only did so much even when she plugged her earphone jacks into them, her hearing too sensitive for them to _fully_ work, but it negated the worst of the damage. The villains shouted in alarm as they jumped, the one holding the woman hostage loosening his grip as his free hand shot up to clutch one ear.

Kaminari was less bothered, having already switched on his own headphones, and immediately launched a lightning rod at the guy with the smoking mouth. Even as he shot the first bolt of electricity at him Kyouka charged, grabbing the woman's arm and successfully yanking her free. The man spun to face her and lashed out violently, his arm splitting into more rope-like sections, but she barely dodged out of the way while shoving the woman away.

"Run and call the police!" she ordered the woman. The screeching from the boots' speakers had already ceased, but between that and yanking the woman free it had disoriented the guy long enough for Kaminari to throw a disc at his arm. Following Hatsume's idea of Quirk-mimicking gear, she'd developed a few discs for Kaminari that would shock whoever they attached to _without_ him using his Quirk.

Sure enough, the villain screamed as electricity coursed through it, the extensions of his arm waving around wildly like the streamers on a carp kite. Smoke began to rise from it too, probably a really bad sign that made Kaminari curse in a panic. Kyouka paid it little mind though, her attention focused on the other guy whose cheeks now puffed up as he glared at the blond.

Instinct took over at the threat to her friend, slamming her hands on the ground next to his feet as her earphone jacks plugged into the amplifier jacks. She activated her Quirk and the pavement cracked under her palms, breaking apart under the man's feet and knocking him off-balance. Kyouka delivered a harsh punch to the back of his knee for good measure, and rolled out of the way side as he went down.

In the meantime the other guy had finally stopped spasming from the shock, the disc thankfully _not_ exploding. Kaminari didn't give him a chance to recover, lunging at him and slamming his fist into his stomach. The man went skidding back with a pained wheeze, clutching his stomach as he tried to get his footing. Kyouka had coincidentally rolled in his direction, so he ended up tripping over her. Not something she planned, but she wasn't complaining as he went down with a groan.

More importantly though, the other guy was still conscious, and judging by the glare he shot Kyouka he was _furious_. His eyes almost seemed to glow with hatred as his cheeks puffed up, dark wisps of smoke already escaping the corners of his mouth. _Oh, shit._

At that moment Kaminari basically crashed into him, diving down so his shoulder collided with the man's stomach. His breath escaped with a pained shout, fire and smoke spewing almost harmlessly into the sky as the impact rolled him onto his back. Figuring Kaminari had it handled Kyouka quickly crawled over to the other guy, pulling zip ties from her pocket to quickly tie up his arms.

Fortunately he was too dazed and sore to resist, and by the time she finished and turned around Kaminari had started restraining the other guy. She noted he'd shoved a wad of fabric in his mouth, making her arch her eyebrows. "What is that?"

"My old socks," Kaminari responded proudly, making her almost flinch. "I took them off when changing earlier and slipped them into my pocket on accident I guess, but hey, it works!"

...Kyouka didn't even like the villain, but she felt nothing but sympathy for the look of pure disgust and horror he sported at the revelation. "Find something that _doesn't_ have your DNA on it," she grumbled, resisting the urge to smack her forehead at his stupidity. Kaminari's proud smile quickly faded as he nodded and got up to run to the alley, leaving Kyouka to watch over the would-be villains.

Their second take-down was a lot rougher than their first, but they did it. They managed to take down two thugs and save a woman. Her eyes flickered around the street, soon settling on a security camera above the door to one of the nearby buildings pointed right at them. She stared at it for several moments before deliberately turning her back on it.

Later when police would review the security footage of the encounter, they would have a clear shot of the large, white "1-A" embroidered on the back of both vigilantes' jackets.

* * *

**To everyone wondering how Kaminari and Jirou would try to be found by others: here's your answer. ****Also, say hi to Saki and Mail! Genuinely can't say which half of the chapter excites me more. Quick note: ******Mail is pronounced like "Mile", not "male". I have no idea what country that name is from (I have seen people with that name though, including Matt from Death Note), so if anyone knows I'd be really grateful! It doesn't matter to the overall story but I'm just really curious.**  
**

**Question for next time: what other "fake Quirks" can you imagine Hatsume creating with her inventions? (Asking because I may end up using some. I've got a couple other inventions in mind, but more ideas are always welcome!)**


	23. Chapter 23: Nostalgia and New Alliances

Chapter 23

.::Nostalgia and New Alliances::.

Today, Izuku was determined to finally, _finally_ put his plan into action. This time he wouldn't let anything deter him. Almost all of the villains were out today, whether to perform crimes or some other tasks they wouldn't share with him. Even Kurogiri and Shigaraki had left for whatever reason, and as far as Izuku knew the only ones hanging around besides the basic grunts were Magne and—most importantly—Seiko.

Closing the door to his room after returning from lunch, he took a breath and called out hesitantly. "Seiko?"

"Yes?" He jumped and whirled around with a startled shout to find her standing behind him, that same eerie blank look on her face as always. At this point he probably shouldn't be surprised by her ability to appear _literally out of no where_, but he was still caught off-guard by how fast she responded.

"A-are you always watching me!?" he asked, clutching at his chest.

"I am," she responded simply, and he almost faltered at how bluntly she answered him. _Seriously!?_ That really did not ease his nerves.

Talking to Seiko always left Izuku feeling unsettled. Beyond the whole _appearing out of no where_ thing, she also just carried this bizarre aura that left his nerves on edge. Maybe it was the fact she almost never showed emotion, save for a rare quirk of her lips. Or maybe it was her eyes. They just had this—_emptiness_ to them, almost as if something was missing, but he had no idea what.

Something about Seiko just felt... _wrong_.

Still, despite all that, she was probably the person Izuku trusted the most right now. It was bizarre to think that because he knew even less about her than all of the other villains. However, so far she had only been helpful—even if it was in her own, creepy way—hence why he felt she was the only one he could approach about this.

So he pushed against his misgivings, silently steeling himself before speaking. "Everyone should be gone for the next few hours, right?" he asked, and Seiko inclined her head.

"Yes. I would advise against leaving without Kurogiri teleporting you though. It's dangerous to leave the building directly."

"That's fine, I don't want to go anywhere," Izuku replied, and took a deep breath. "Can you help me with something?" She inclined her head slightly, a silent indication for him to elaborate, so he pushed on. "You know about how I've been trying to fix things with Kacchan, right? A-and, also, how I've been spending a lot of time with Hijack...?"

He trailed off, but Seiko gave no sign of affirmation, merely continued to gaze at him with that unreadable blank look. Gulping, he decided to just get to the point. "Can—can you help me get them together? In one place? I need to talk to them, together."

Seiko finally blinked for the first time this entire conversation, her head returning to its normal upright position. "I see. And you are asking me to help, rather than Shigaraki or Kurogiri, because you do not wish them to know?"

"Pretty much," Izuku confirmed. "They'd probably want to supervise it, and I don't think Kacchan or Hijack would feel comfortable." That was an understatement. _Izuku_ wouldn't feel comfortable with a deadly villain hovering in the corner even if he didn't have a plan and just wanted to genuinely hang out. Shigaraki would probably join the conversation and/or spend the entire time muttering ominous threats, while Kurogiri would probably just hover there watching them silently. He didn't know which would be worse.

As it stood, having either of them there to supervise would get in the way of his plan anyway, so he didn't dwell on it. "I just want to be able to talk to them both at once. Alone, if possible," he added. "It... might make things easier."

Seiko said nothing for a long moment, those eerie luminescent black and white eyes seeming to penetrate into his very soul. He suppressed a shiver, just meeting them as squarely as he could. Finally though she walked past him, opening the door and stepping into the hall. Izuku turned to watch her in surprise for a few moments, unsure what to do until she spoke up. "We should go now."

Izuku startled at that, but quickly perked up and hurried after her as relief washed over him. _She agreed._ He hadn't been entirely sure she'd be willing to help, so the fact she agreed so easily made the tension seep from his body. He'd worried she might have wanted more information first, he didn't want her to try to stop him or tell someone else. By the time she figured out what he intended, it would (_hopefully_) be too late to stop it.

They moved through the halls in silence, Seiko leading the way as she always did. It didn't take him long to realize where they were going, stepping a little closer to her with a small frown. "Are we going to Hijack's room?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"We are," Seiko confirmed. "He's quieter and will be easier to move." Izuku winced at her words, thinking of _why_ Shinsou was so quiet.

"But—that thing around his ankle," he pressed anxiously after a few seconds. "Isn't it, like, to keep him in that room?" He hadn't paid much attention to the bracelet around Shinsou's ankle, more distracted by the _muzzle custom fit to his jaw_, but the blinking red light on the band gave him a bad feeling.

"It restricts his movements to the building, not just that room," Seiko responded. "It won't detonate if he leaves." Izuku stopped short at that, his jaw dropping open in absolute horror as the blood drained from his face.

"It's a _BOMB_?" he squeaked.

"Technically yes," Seiko responded _way_ too casually for such a serious and _horrifying_ topic. "I doubt he is aware though. Its main usage is the electrocution function." Izuku just gaped at her retreating back, his horror only growing. Seiko never broke her stride, and after several long seconds he gulped and jogged after her.

There were so many things wrong with this situation, and somehow it got even worse. Forget trying to get home, this plan NEEDED to work for _their_ sakes.

When they reached Shinsou's room Seiko stepped aside, allowing Izuku to enter the code and open the door. He found the other teen reclined on the bed playing Mario Kart, reflexively hitting the pause button as he turned to look at Izuku. He felt awkward under Shinsou's silent stare, shuffling anxiously in the doorway.

"Hey," he greeted awkwardly. "Um, I know this is sudden, but you know how I've been talking about my friend Kacchan being here too?" Izuku had made sure to tell both teens about each other, partially to explain why he had to split his time but also for the sake of the plan. Shinsou arched an eyebrow and nodded, as if to say 'go on,' so Izuku took a deep breath. "Well, um, everyone's gone right now so I want to take you to meet him. C-can you grab your whiteboard?"

Shinsou raised both eyebrows now, clearly surprised, but after several long seconds he put down the controller and grabbed his whiteboard and marker. Izuku stepped aside as Shinsou walked over so he could walk out first, the other teen pausing briefly to stare at the ground before stepping through the door almost cautiously.

Seiko stood outside waiting for them, and as soon as Izuku closed the door she turned and started walking. Shinsou seemed taken aback by her presence, shooting Izuku a heavily questioning look clearly asking, "_What the actual hell is going on? Who is that? Is that a kid?_" He could only reply with a shrug and helpless smile, which quickly turned into a grimace as they started following Seiko.

They walked down the hallway in silence, the air almost tense. Seiko seemed to be immune to the tension as always, or maybe _she_ caused it. Either way it set his nerves on edge, and he couldn't help but worry about someone appearing around every corner. Judging by the way Shinsou glanced around he might be paranoid too... or he might just be looking around because he'd never been out of that room.

_When was the last time he even saw the sky?_ Izuku wondered, and then had to dismiss the thought because it was just too depressing. He focused on following Seiko to Bakugou's room, where she once more stepped aside so he could enter. He stood in front of the door and took a deep breath, steeling himself before he knocked and pushed it open.

No going back now.

* * *

Bakugou Katsuki was meant to be a hero.

That's what people had told him from practically the day he was born. The moment his Quirk manifested everyone swarmed around him, eyes alight with awe and admiration as they showered him with praise. "_Explosions are so powerful!_" "_You'll be an unbeatable hero!_" "_With a Quirk like that you'll be Number One for sure!_"

He'd preened under the attention, absorbed every word and reflected them with pride. Everyone else around him became nothing but extras, the world elevating Katsuki straight into the spotlight as the main character. Looking back he'd say that could have been his folly. He'd been too proud.

Reality had hit him hard and early with the death of All Might.

Even before the rest of the world began to go to shit, even before Pro Heroes began dropping like flies and missing posters plastered every wall, Katsuki's world shattered at the age of eight. He'd never forget sitting with Deku in absolute silence, watching the smoking remains of a city where the Number One Hero had engaged in battle with some villain called All For One. The name had sounded so _stupid_, he'd thought, but looking at the absolute carnage left by their fight had rendered him mute.

That day, Katsuki learned that a powerful Quirk _wasn't_ everything. Sometimes, it was even bad. That lethal battle between All Might and All For One wouldn't have been nearly as devastating if they hadn't both been so ridiculously powerful. Tokyo would still be standing if Endeavor's opponent hadn't been the walking equivalent of a nuclear bomb, radiating corrosive mist that melted everything and every_one_ it came into contact with.

Katsuki looked at the endless news footage of Tokyo's devastation _days_ after that fight ended, watching as yet another building collapsed behind a reporter and kicked up a giant dust cloud without any external provocation. And he thought of his own Quirk, which could be so destructive if he wasn't careful.

Even before Tokyo fell though, and after All Might died, there had been one more event that hammered in how Quirks weren't everything.

The day Auntie Inko and Uncle Hisashi died in a plane crash.

During the funeral he'd felt numb, just staring at their empty caskets as Deku silently cried while holding the old hag's hand. Even then it didn't feel real that they were _gone_, but most of all to something like _that_.

Plane crashes couldn't be stopped by explosions. There were no villains to beat, no room for a fantasy where he would show up and stop it before it crashed and save the day. Even if he'd already been the Number One Hero, he wouldn't have been able to do anything to help them until it already was too late. No amount of training would make his Quirk magically able to prevent the plane from crashing.

For the first time in his life, Bakugou Katsuki realized being a hero meant more than just winning, and that his Quirk wouldn't always be enough to save the day.

That revelation had hung over him for weeks afterwards, leaving him just as quiet and somber as the perpetually-crying Deku. The two boys had spent countless hours huddled up in Katsuki's room, neither of them speaking and just leaning against each other as each ruminated in their own thoughts. At school kids left them both alone, the relentless teasing towards Deku from their peers ending.

When a month passed and the first kid finally tried to tease Deku again, he'd stopped short when Katsuki glared at him. The next kid got a much more physical lesson on why no one should pick on him anymore. After all, what point was there in mocking someone for being Quirkless when there were situations where their Quirks wouldn't matter? Most Quirks wouldn't have been able to save Auntie or Uncle.

In some scenarios, they'd all be as good as Quirkless.

Katsuki's biggest regret in life was that he never figured out how to vocalize _any_ of that to Deku. Even as Katsuki finally began to come to terms with all these new revelations and regained his usual hot-headed demeanor, he didn't talk about it to Deku. He was only eight, he had no idea how to even _begin_ to talk about sappy emotional stuff like that. And Deku was still sad, he'd lost his parents for crying out loud! It wasn't the time to have some sappy heart-to-heart conversation about his newfound understanding of what it meant to be a hero or whatever.

Maybe if he had, Deku would still be there.

The day that Deku ran away had been cold and rainy. The hag and his dad had gone crazy when they realized what the idiot had done, calling up all the neighbors and parents to start a search party. Katsuki remembered his parents shoving him with Old Mrs. Hanamura down the street before rushing out the door, never looking so absolutely _frantic_ in their lives.

Katsuki spent almost every day with Mrs. Hanamura for the next two weeks while his parents searched and searched. Deku had taken almost all the pictures they had of him and Auntie and Uncle, and the next day his family's house caught fire, only adding to the panic and fear. At first a lot of people helped look, but as time went on less and less people helped. Finally one night his mom came home with her eyes rimmed red, cursing the police at the top of her lungs between shaky sobs as his dad hugged her tight, and he realized Deku would probably never come back.

For years, the last memory Katsuki would have of Midoriya Izuku would be of a sad eight-year-old boy sitting on the edge of his bed, staring down at the photo of his eighth birthday with hollow green eyes.

* * *

Katsuki would never imagine that eight years later upon finally reuniting with his childhood best friend, he would try to bash in his face.

To be fair, he also never imagined that reunion would take place after being kidnapped by villains and having his hands stuck in metal handcuffs, so he figured he was absolutely justified in being pissed off. Deku apparently agreed, seeing as he stopped the villains' fucking leader from trying to disintegrate his face. Figures that even after spending eight years living with villains, stupid Deku would still be a crybaby pushover.

He never got a solid explanation for how Deku ended up there. The bastard always avoided the question until Katsuki finally gave up asking. Deku obviously knew this whole thing was fucked up, judging by how he was always fidgeting and avoiding his eyes, but he still never tried to _fix_ anything. Which was bullshit, because if he could get away with calling Shigaraki "Tomura-nii" then he had carte blanche of this place!

However, even with all that, this took the cake.

The visit started normal enough. He'd been sitting on the bed bored out of his mind like usual when he heard the familiar knock followed by it opening, and turned to see Deku scramble in like always. Any normality flew out the window the second a _second_ person followed him inside, making him bolt upright as his guard instantly flew up. Deku had never brought another visitor before.

"What the hell, Deku?" he asked, straight to the point as always. "Is that—_what the actual fuck?_" His questions abruptly died as his eyes zeroed in on the _muzzle_ wrapped around the other guy's face, just stunned. The new teen cringed and backed up a bit under his stare, obviously self-conscious and uncomfortable.

"Uh, I'll explain in a second," Deku mumbled, closing the door almost hesitantly. As he did he peeked into the hallway one last time, as if checking something. By that point the mysterious stranger had already taken the opportunity to write on his whiteboard and turned it to Katsuki.

'_Hello Kacchan._' Katsuki could feel his eye twitch at the written nickname.

"Are you Hijack?" he guessed irritably. Deku _had_ mentioned the vigilante and that he'd been muzzled, but he hadn't thought—_fuck,_ he thought he'd just been gagged or something! When the mystery fucker nodded he turned to Deku to growl, "Did you even bother to tell the fucker my _actual_ name?"

"It... might have slipped my mind?" Deku said sheepishly after a few seconds. Both of them gave him rather unimpressed looks, making him cringe.

"My name's Bakugou Katsuki, not 'Kacchan,'" Katsuki told Hijack. "I only let Deku get away with that because I don't have a choice."

'_Respect,_' Hijack wrote with a sage nod while Deku winced next to him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled miserably, which he _fucking should be_, but then shook his head and seemed to get ahold of himself. "Look, Hijack, can you sit down? I'll apologize more later but right now I don't know how long we have so we should get started." Hijack shot him a curious look as he went to sit on the bed, making sure to give Katsuki space, while Katsuki's eyes narrowed.

"What're you up to now, Deku?" he asked lowly. "This isn't just some shitty meet-and-greet, is it? Are you even allowed to do this?"

"Probably not," Deku admitted, reaching into his pocket. "But I've been thinking of how to do this for a while, and it's easier to tell you both at once. And even then, there's just—so _much_, I don't even know where to begin. Everything's so screwed up and I have no idea where to even begin with fixing it. But after thinking about it I thought of this, and, well, it's probably a better starting point than anything I can come up with."

He pulled out an envelope and thrust it at Hijack, the purple-haired teenager taking it with an almost suspicious look while Bakugou leaned over his shoulder to read the writing. _Izuku - Read In Case of Emergency._ Shooting Deku one last wary look, Hijack opened it and pulled out a letter.

The next five minutes proved to be awkward as fuck, because with his hands restrained in those blocky metal restraints Katsuki couldn't actually _hold_ the paper. He ended up needing to leave it to the Purple Vigilante Wonder to angle and turn the pages for him to read, which only reminded him of how screwed he was. His irritation didn't make him too receptive to the letter's contents, either. The whole time Deku stood in silence, which didn't fucking help his mood.

"So you just get fucking random laser-guided amnesia with no warning!?" he demanded once he and Hijack finally finished reading the letter.

Deku winced, just bobbing his head. "I-I know it sounds crazy, but it's true!" he babbled. "Two weeks ago I woke up and I knew _nothing_ in that letter! I didn't know about mom and dad, All Might, the Villain Alliance—none of it!" Katsuki scoffed, only half-buying it, but the Purple Fucker seemed to be considering something as he picked up his whiteboard.

'_Is that why you suddenly stopped visiting?_' he wrote, and Katsuki looked at him quizzically while Deku winced, his head hanging even lower.

"Yeah, it is," he admitted miserably. "I completely forgot about everything, including you two. The letter mentioned you but the last thing on the list at the end was about Kacchan getting stuck here, and when I read that I panicked and couldn't think of anything else. After that I became focused on figuring out what's going on and just making sure no one realized I'm having an episode."

"Why the hell would _that_ matter?" Katsuki snapped. He then _flinched_ when Deku raised his head sharply, his eyes filled with tears but looking strangely determined.

"_Because if they got too worried, I wouldn't be able to do anything to help you two!_" The outburst silenced him, both his and Hijack's eyes widening as Deku began rambling—no, not rambling, _ranting_. "Everything about this world's so screwed up and I have no idea how to even begin fixing it! I can't just talk to Shigaraki and ask him to stop, I can't get Toga to leave Hijack alone, I don't even know how to get off that damn muzzle, or why Seiko is here, or what Aiko does but it's got to be screwed up if she's working with the Alliance and I still don't know why she has Aizawa-sensei's goggles—_There's just too much!_"

Tears streamed freely down Deku's face as he pulled at his hair, but this time they were tears of _frustration_, his voice rising to an angry pitch. "Everything's just—it's all so screwed up and I feel like I can't do _anything_! I feel like a stupid, useless Deku and I _hate it_, guys! I hate it so much! So, _please_!" He let out an almost desperate whine, turning pleading, _begging_ eyes to them. "Please, you _have_ to work with me so I can save you! I can't just stand by and do nothing, but I can't do _anything_ on my own!"

With those words Deku finally fell silent, his breathing harsh and labored after all the energy put into the rant. Katsuki felt frozen as he stared at him, his brain still struggling to fully process the entire anxiety-driven rant.

Just. Holy _shit_. He'd seen Deku get worked up before, but never like _that_. For all he hated his situation and despised Deku for his role in it, Katsuki knew that whole speech wasn't acting or some shitty ploy for sympathy. Deku already looked ready to burst into tears again, his face all scrunched up with desperation and frustration as he tried to control his breathing.

Not for the first time, Katsuki reflected on how Deku _hated_ this just as much as he did. It was obvious enough whenever they interacted, the other teen always flinching and looking guilty as hell, but he'd never actually _said it_ until now. After this long Katsuki had expected him to never actually address it.

More than that though, Deku's words struck a chord in him. "_I can't just stand by and do nothing, but I can't do anything on my own!_" That sentence took him back to that miserable gloomy day when they were eight years old staring at Auntie and Uncle's caskets, the first day he understood just how powerless he really was. On his own, Katsuki wouldn't have been able to do anything to save them.

And on his own, neither could Deku.

That realization settled something inside him, his hands curling into fists inside the stupid metal block. "Then what do we do?" he demanded, seeming to startle Deku. Katsuki met his wide eyes squarely, pushing on gruffly, "You got us together to tell us all this, so you've got some kind of plan, right?"

Deku blinked, still a bit startled. "You—you're willing to work with me?" he asked, and Katsuki scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"No shit, sherlock! No way any of us are getting out of this shithole on our own. So if you've got a plan, just hit us with it already." Deku just gaped at him, and when he glanced over at the Eyebag Wonder, Hijack nodded in silent agreement, holding up the whiteboard.

'_I'm in too. Anything to get this thing off my face._'

Relief visibly washed over Deku's face at seeing them both agree, but he didn't smile or burst into tears like Katsuki expected. Instead he seemed to reaffirm his resolve, his face hardening and eyes lighting with determination.

For the first time since waking up in this shithole, Katsuki decided he might have hope.

* * *

**And Izuku finally gets them on his side! I've been waiting for this moment for a while. I am so happy with this chapter for so many reasons, I got to expose Shinsou to Seiko's creepiness and work in a bit of world-building.  
**

**A little glimpse at my writing process: This chapter was originally two parts. The first part was tacked onto the end of Chapter 22, and covered everything in Izuku's POV and ended with him giving them the letter. The next chapter then went straight into flashbacks for both Bakugou AND Shinsou, starting with Shinsou and ending with Bakugou. I decided to cut Shinsou's POV for now, since his history's a bit more... _eventful_. On that note, Chapter 22 originally had the 1-A Vigilantes scene and then went to Izuku's POV. The scene at Nighteye was originally in the next chapter, but I rearranged the order. I'm glad I did, because the 1-A Vigilantes probably would've been overshadowed by this chapter.**

**And THIS is why I advocate writing ahead before posting chapters. You never want to write yourself into a corner, or change your mind about an event after posting it.  
**

**Question for next time: what do you think is Izuku's plan? And how much do you think Seiko knows?  
**


	24. Chapter 24: Puns and 8-Bit Ringtones

Chapter 24

.::Puns and 8-Bit Ringtones::.

"Good job kids!"

Mina had to fight not to cringe as another random guy called out to her as he passed by the door to the waiting room, shrinking a little more in her chair. "Oh my gosh, I totally screwed up yesterday," she groaned. Kirishima just moaned quietly from his own seat in the far corner of the room, not even bothering to respond verbally.

All day long she'd been getting comments about how she and Kirishima had saved that guy. Apparently there had been a news camera recording the whole thing, and it caught their whole confrontation. They'd cut the footage once they realized she and Kiri were kids, but it was too late and the video was already put online. So now every stranger she saw seemed to be calling out to her and telling her she was doing a great job.

And normally? She wouldn't mind. Seriously, _she saved a life_! How awesome is that? _And_ she even got Kirishima to help without having to ask him! He came after her all on his own, no pressure from her needed! He was finally starting to man up again! They both deserved some praise.

Except in this world, _getting attention for saving lives made you a giant target for villains!_

For every person that praised her or shouted a "good job" she got a look of sympathy or pity. On the train this morning one person even scooted away from her, like he expected she'd be attacked then and there! Her homeroom teacher had even called her last night to say not to worry about her homework for a while and ask if she had a safe place to lay low, which, _holy shit that was actually kind of terrifying_. He talked to her about switching to online classes and everything!

Basically, Mina had royally screwed up and put herself in a lot of danger. She never thought she'd say this, but damn her heroic instincts! The only remotely good thing to come out of this was that the hero from yesterday, Golden Needle, had given her and Kiri his cell phone number so they could contact him. He actually made some hints about a potential future in heroics if they were interested, which apparently might be how recruitment worked in this world...?

Mina didn't know. She didn't really know much about how the hero system worked in this world, and it didn't really matter because _this was not her world dang it_!

But it _was_ Kirishima's, and that alone brought her new levels of guilt. They'd both been forced to get up at the ungodly hour of nine this morning despite it being a _Saturday_ in order to go to the police station to submit a more detailed report and talk about what they'd do next. The questioning had ended an hour ago, and they'd been sitting in a semi-private waiting room since then waiting to get called back to the office.

The wait was worse than usual because she just felt so guilty. Kiri looked like his whole life had ended, and it basically had. He huddled in a chair in the far corner of the room, knees hugged to his chest and ignoring her. He looked so miserable, it made her heart sink. Making up her mind, she got up and strode over.

"Kiri, are you okay?"

"Leave me alone, Ashido," Kirishima muttered. She winced, a bit stung, but frowned and stood her ground.

"Kiri, you don't need to be so _mean_!" Kirishima didn't even look at her, just kept hugging his knees and buried his face deeper in his arms with a groan.

"What part of 'go away' don't you understand?" he muttered.

"The part where one of my best friends tells me to leave him alone while he's obviously upset!" Mina countered with a pout and Kirishima _finally_ looked up, but when he did he didn't look at her, he _glared_.

"But it's _your_ fault!" he snapped and she flinched, startled by the outburst.

"What?" she whispered, and Kirishima barreled on, his voice loud and agitated.

"We're all over the news, Ashido! I couldn't even get my mail this morning without our neighbors staring at me! One woman even dragged her kid away! My mom called me last night _freaking out_ because I'm going to be a target now and _I can't deal with this_!" He looked ready to cry, his voice growing steadily louder until he cut himself off with a sharp intake of breath. Mina just looked at him silently, not sure what to say as guilt washed over her in full force.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking down. Kirishima deflated, his anger vanishing as he hung his head with a low groan.

"I'm sorry Ashido, I know it's wrong to take it out on you. It's just, this is _too much_. I'm glad we saved that guy and all, but we're targets now. I don't want to get kidnapped." He buried his face in his arms again and Mina frowned, feeling awful for putting her friend in this position. Of course he'd freak out, Kiri was an anxious mess in this world and he knew just how screwed up it was _way_ better than she did.

It really just hammered home how badly she'd messed up yesterday. This was a whole new level of panic from him, so the danger was seriously real. She bit her lip, feeling more and more antsy. She had royally screwed up and put them _both_ in real, serious danger. She couldn't even try to comfort him or say it would all be okay because really, she had no idea if it would.

She heard footsteps from the hallway and turned to see the officer who'd talked to them earlier stepping inside. Behind him was a man with foreign features and teal hair tied into a messy ponytail at the base of his neck, a lazy-looking smile on his face as he nodded at them.

"Yo," he greeted. "Ashido and Kirishima, right?"

"...Yeah." Mina frowned, instantly on edge. Who was this guy?

As if sensing her thoughts the officer stepped forward. "Alright, you two, we've managed to put a stop to most media coverage but some copies have already been put online by third parties. Thankfully the sites in question are doing their best to take them down, but unfortunately they can't keep track of every video uploaded so some copies are guaranteed to slip through the cracks."

"We're _screwed_," Kirishima groaned as he sank in his chair.

"I always wanted to go viral, but not like this!" Mina moaned. Seriously, why couldn't this have happened in her _own_ world!?

The officer just patiently waited for their whining to fade before speaking again. "Anyways, the first few weeks are the most dangerous in cases like this, so we've got a Pro Hero to keep guard over you until the attention dies down a bit." _That_ got their attention, both of them shutting up and perking as their gazes snapped to him.

"Really? Who?" Kiri finally didn't look like he expected the world to end, and the teal-haired guy stepped forward.

"That would be me," he volunteered, and both teenagers focused on him intensely. Mina... had no idea who he was. Granted, she didn't know a bunch of the heroes in this world so that didn't really mean anything. But Kiri looked just as lost as she did, so she felt justified in her confusion. "The name's Kageyama Kas, also known as Oracle. I work for Team Storm Chaser."

Now that name Mina _did_ know, but it just confused her further. "Wait, aren't you guys rescue heroes?" she blurted. '_And it's still active!?_' she wanted to add, but stopped herself before she could.

"On the surface, yes," Kageyama confirmed with a nod and small smirk. "But we also do a bunch of underground work since we've got clearance to go pretty much anywhere. That's my main area, actually, and why I got assigned guard duty for you two." She just nodded with a little "ah," understanding a bit better now.

_Guess that's just another difference from my world._ Mina only knew about Team Storm Chaser because Uraraka was a big fan of them. They'd been operating as an international rescue team since even before anyone in their class was born, and were one of the only hero teams with clearance to work in almost every country. The team had offices all over the world, and its members came from a bunch of different countries.

Back in her world the team had basically disbanded by the time they all entered high school though. The only one still active was Skylight, a half-American UA graduate, but he'd mostly switched over to villain takedowns and primarily worked out of America. Sometimes he came back to Japan though, and Uraraka said the Storm Chaser HQ's Japan branch branch was still active in Numazu. Maybe they still had some secret underground heroes back home, too?

...Thinking about home made her feel depressed again. "Uh, I'm really glad you'll be looking out for us and all, but how's this gonna work?" Kiri asked. "Are you gonna, like, _live_ with one of us or something? And also, there's two of us. So how...?"

"You guys live in the same apartment building," Kageyama replied smoothly. "I'll just lurk around and keep an eye on it. No need for me to move in with either of you, you'll mainly see me when I have to escort you wherever you need to go. On that note, no solo trips for the next few weeks," he added, growing serious. "I can't be in two places at once, so if you guys need to go to the store, either we all go or I'll send someone to get whatever you need."

"...So basically, you're a glorified babysitter?" Mina asked after a few seconds, and he shrugged.

"Yep, but without a child-friendly filter. Good thing you two are teens." As he spoke they heard a ringtone, making Mina perk up.

"What's that? It sounds catchy."

"That would be an 8-bit remix of the first Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood opening," Kageyama said, smiling sheepishly as he pulled a phone out of his pocket. "Sorry, gotta take this. Be right back." As he stepped into the hall Mina and Kirishima exchanged confused looks.

"What's Fullmetal... whatever?" Mina whispered.

"No idea," Kirishima replied. "The name sounds kinda like an anime I guess, but I don't watch any. Maybe it's some obscure one?" The officer cleared his throat at this point, and they both snapped upright and turned to face him.

"I'll let Kageyama handle everything once he wraps up his call. I'd recommend you two arrange with your school to do classes online for a while though. The less you go out, the better." While Kirishima nodded Mina felt her stomach sink, a sudden dread washing over her as their situation began to _really_ sink in.

They were basically on house arrest now, weren't they? Normally she wouldn't mind too much even if she might go stir-crazy, but now it made her feel a sudden cold, only one thought running through her head: _How can I get home if I can't even leave?_ And with that thought, all of the concern and worries she'd been steadily tucking away suddenly came to the front of her mind.

For the first time in twelve days, Mina finally let herself think about the full ramifications of what was going on.

* * *

_Ring. Ring._

Shouto stared at the phone as it continued to ring, a bit lost on what to do. Despite being in Odawara for a little under a week now, this was the first time the burner phone Kuroe gave him had actually rang. The caller ID displayed the name "Kite Takoyaki," which gave him no clue as to who might be on the other end.

_Kite_ was likely an English word since it used katakana, but he hadn't seen it enough to know what it meant. Takoyaki, meanwhile, was round and usually had octopus in it, but none of the people he knew were round or had aquatic or marine Quirks. Asui might count, but she'd probably prefer a frog alias. Maybe Shouji though? His Dupliarms did give him multiple arms, which was _kind of_ like an octopus.

In the time he mulled over this the phone stopped ringing, the silence snapping him out of his thoughts. _Oops._ Sighing, he flipped the phone open and went to the contact list to call the number back. While he didn't really want to go out of his way, he'd been taught that intentionally ignoring calls was impolite.

(Unless it was reporters. Reporters could be ignored for however long you liked. Alternatively, you could give the phone to a kid to babble at them instead. Natsuo _loved_ that particular method, it was the one time he'd grin at Endeavor.)

The phone rang two times before the mystery caller answered. "Well, thank you for at least calling me back, Yuki-san," a familiar voice greeted with a hint of sarcasm, and Shouto blinked.

"Ah, so it's you," he murmured. Funny how he could recognize Monoma's voice so clearly just from the tone alone.

"Of course it's me," Monoma replied. "Who else would use the name Kite?"

Weird point, but now Shouto couldn't help but ask. "Do you have an aquatic Quirk? Or something that lets you make stuff round or something?"

There was a long pause on the other end. "...Just to double-check. You do actually know _who_ I am, correct?"

"Yes. You're..." Shouto trailed off before he could say Monoma's actual name, quickly searching his memory for the alias. "Kaitou." A pause. "Oh." In retrospect, that should have been obvious. "Where does the takoyaki come from?"

"_Kite_ is the English word for kites—the kind people tie to strings and fly around," Monoma replied, and Shouto gave a soft "ah" as the rest of it clicked into place. One of the Japanese words for kites and the one Monoma just used was _tako_, and _tako_ could also mean octopus. "I'm not surprised you didn't know. It's a stupid pun most people don't get unless they're completely bilingual in English."

"Why use it if you think it's stupid?"

"My suggestions were vetoed," Monoma grumbled. "Kuroe said they all made my Quirk too obvious." Shouto thought that "Maria's Garden Care" and "Odawara Wildlife Rescue" were pretty obvious references to Shiozaki and Kouda's Quirks, but he kept the thought to himself as Monoma continued. "Anyways, we've gotten off-topic. Yuki-san, are you free right now? I wanted to meet up with you to discuss something."

"What is it?" Shouto asked, instantly on guard. He still felt like something happened yesterday he didn't understand, so while Monoma might have been polite so far he didn't want to get too careless. "Could we discuss it over the phone?"

"We could, but I'd rather do it in person. It's about Gentle Criminal." Shouto went very still at the name, eyes narrowing.

"What about him?" he asked sharply.

"One of our members heard some information. They're too shy to speak over the phone, so they asked me to call you. We'd prefer to speak in person, since you never know what kinds of Quirks are about." Shouto remained silent as he listened, already weighing his options.

On the one hand, he still didn't trust Monoma. On the other though, this might be a solid lead to Tokoyami. He hadn't seen anything about Gentle Criminal or his partner in the news lately, and he'd found no other leads on his classmate. For all he knew they may have moved on to another city already, and having to relocate would be too expensive and annoying to bother with unless he had solid confirmation of their location. If this lead was legit, it might be just what he needed.

His mind settled, he asked, "Where do we meet?"

"Do you still know how to get to Kuroe's house?"

Shouto took a moment to review his mental map of Odawara. "Yes, I should be able to find it. Are we meeting there?"

"No." Shouto blinked while Monoma continued, "Go there, and turn right on the corner with the red-roofed house. Go straight until the third stop sign, then turn left and follow that street until you reach Akakusa Park—"

"The one with the All Might statue?" Shouto cut in, and for a moment Monoma was quiet.

"...You've gotten to know Odawara better than I expected," he finally said. "Good, this will save us time. Just go to the park, and at the end of the path—the end with the gazebo structure?" When Shouto made a noise of recognition he continued, "Go straight into the woods, through the gap between the white tree and the one with three scratches on it. If you keep going straight from there you should find a tree that's cut in half, just turn left there and after a while you'll figure out how to reach the meeting spot."

"That is still long and complicated. And the ending sounds vague and unhelpful."

"Yes, well, we don't want to be found too easily. I assure you, the directions will be straightforward once you get there."

Around an hour and a half later Shouto silently reflected Monoma was at least right about the directions not being too complicated as he trekked through the heavily wooded area. Walking to Akakusa Park had taken a while since he'd been pretty far away when he got the call, but Monoma had assured him they would be willing to wait for him until he arrived. He hoped so, because hiking through such a thickly wooded area in winter turned out to be harder than he thought.

It had snowed last night, not too heavy but the thin layer on the forest floor made each step that much much slippery. He had to be mindful of every step since he had no idea what rested beneath the snow. Hopefully the "tree cut in half" Monoma mentioned meant the one that looked like it'd been struck by lightning, because he'd already made the turn fifteen minutes ago. If not, he wasn't sure how long it would take to find the right one.

Eventually the trees gave way to a creek, and he stopped to stare at the running water thoughtfully. Could this the meeting place Monoma mentioned? As he stared at it he noticed footprints on the opposite bank, standing next to the water before turning to lead into the woods. It seemed as clear an indication to follow as any he'd ever seen.

After a second's thought he stepped forward and slammed his right foot onto the ground. Ice shot forward instantly, rippling over the water and forming a small, rough-looking bridge he used to cross the gap. When he reached the other side he momentarily placed his weight on his left foot before hopping off it, creating a small burst of heat that melted the bridge behind him. No point leaving an easily followed trail.

From there he followed the footsteps into the woods at a sedate pace, growing increasingly wary of his surroundings. He hiked his scarf a little higher over his nose as he glanced around, shoving his right hand into his pocket to keep it a little warmer while keeping his left ready to defend himself. Around five minutes after crossing the creek the footprints led him to a road, which he only realized was a road because of the snow-covered signs.

_No one's driven here in a while,_ he thought as he observed the largely pristine strip of snow that stretched in both directions. One end had been blocked by a fallen tree, clearly not a recent phenomenon given how worn it looked. The other curved towards a tall hill and ended in a large tunnel, chains stretching over the entrance to block cars from entering. The footprints headed that direction. _Guess that's the meeting place._

Shouto approached it cautiously, eyes flitting around for signs of motion in the trees. It was easy enough to step over the chains blocking the tunnel but he didn't do that just yet, huffing as he stared into the inky darkness. He couldn't even see the other end. "Hello?" he called. "Kaitou?"

"In here!" Monoma's voice responded, distant and echoing from deeper inside the tunnel. A light appeared deep down and began moving towards him, and Shouto could soon make out Monoma holding a flashlight. Allowing himself to relax he stepped over the chain and met him halfway, the blond nodding at him with a smile. "I was starting to think you got lost. Thank you for coming all the way out there."

"Were you just standing in darkness this whole time?" Shouto asked as he followed Monoma back the way he'd come, and the blond's laugh bounced off the walls.

"No, there's a door to some sort of maintenance room partway down. As far as we can tell this tunnel and road used to be part of some private facility that got shut down years ago, so no one comes here anymore. The other end of the tunnel got blocked off by a rockslide or something, by the way, so it's not really a tunnel anymore." Shouto quietly hummed, keeping his guard up as he followed Monoma.

"Is this your base then?"

"No, we don't know you well enough to take you there yet. One of our members happened to stumble upon this place a while back, and it's as good a meeting place as any." Shouto nodded, and the pair lapsed into silence. Soon enough a door on the side of the tunnel came into sight, the white paint gleaming under Monoma's flashlight. He knocked on it twice before pulling it open, the door surprisingly quiet.

"We're here," Monoma greeted as he stepped inside, lingering in the doorway to hold it open for Shouto to enter. As he did he noticed the room was dimly lit, not in an ominous way but simply because the lights themselves were dim. The room was empty as far as he could tell, with a couple of lanterns sitting on crates and black curtains hanging near the back.

The curtains made the person in front of them stand out that much more. They wore a bulky red winter coat with a material that faintly glinted in the lantern's glow, the shade much more subdued than their spiky red hair. As they whirled to face him a glint of gold flashed and Shouto found himself freezing, his whole body going limp. As his legs collapsed under him Monoma shot forward and snagged his arm before he could hit the ground, helping keep him upright.

"Akai, that's not very nice," the blond huffed.

"S-sorry! It was a reflex thing!" Already Shouto could feel control return to his body, and he straightened himself with a full-body shiver as he studied the new person. Akai, as she called herself, had an obvious reptilian mutation, her head basically a gray snake planted on a teenage girl's body. She flinched under his gaze and waved her hands wildly. "D-don't look at me like that! It was an accident, I swear!"

"I... don't blame you?" It came out more as a question than he intended, mostly just wanting to calm her down. He blinked and collected himself before saying more firmly, "Accidents happen. It's okay, I guess." At least he knew what to be wary of from her now. "More importantly, are you the one with information on Gentle Criminal?"

Akai stiffened at the question, turning to face him more directly with her posture more full of confidence. "Yeah, I am..." As she spoke the curtains behind her shifted and Shouto froze. Immediately he started to step back, guard rising higher than ever, but as two figures emerged his mind blanked.

_Asui? Ojiro?_ Even in the darkness he recognized his two classmates immediately. Asui wore a dark green coat and long gray skirt, hair tied in a ponytail as opposed to its usual bow, while Ojiro wore a dark mustard yellow coat with jeans. Asui stopped to stand next to Akai, one finger touching her chin as she tilted her head.

"So you're Yuki-san. We've heard a lot about you, kero. Thank you for taking care of Naota-kun yesterday."

"It's no problem," Shouto replied, though he remained a bit wary. "I couldn't leave a kid alone."

"And we're really grateful for that," Ojiro said, stepping forward and holding out his hand. "I'm Lee." Shouto shook it and Asui stepped forward next with her own hand extended.

"I'm Midori, kero," she introduced as Shouto shook her hand. As she pulled it back another hand took its place, which he gripped.

"And I'm Kaitou, though you already knew that." Shouto stiffened, belatedly realizing the hand belonged to Monoma rather than Akai like he'd assumed. Monoma just smiled pleasantly as their hands released, but instead of letting it fall to his side he looked at his palm with that oddly placid smile.

"Yes, well, now that introductions are out of the way, we do have one more question," he commented, and Shouto regarded him with a renewed sense of caution until ice crystals suddenly formed in Monoma's palm. Oh. Oh no, that wasn't good. Monoma raised his left hand and a tiny lick of fire flickered there too.

_Not good at all,_ Shouto reiterated as Monoma met his gaze. "Why in the world is the son of Endeavor looking for a villain and his sidekick in Odawara?"

When Shouto got back to his own world, he made a mental vow to learn everything he could about Class 1-B.

* * *

**Fun fact: this chapter was originally how Shouto's first meeting with Monoma ended. The last three paragraphs are a direct copy and paste from the original version. It was just too great to NOT use it somehow. ****Another fun fact: this was the chapter where Saki and Mail originally appeared before deciding to rearrange stuff, so we'd have gotten to meet THREE OCs in one go.  
**

**Lots of fun stuff. Meet Kageyama Kas, aka Oracle. He's a quarter Japanese but doesn't look it, and is very likely dead in the canon universe.**** For the record, I use the "My Hero Academia takes place ~200 years in the future" timeline as opposed to setting it in the 2010s like some fan fics do (seriously, that's a huge pet peeve of mine), so**** FMA is actually 200 years old at this point. There's probably been a couple remakes of it and other classic anime over those two centuries, but I doubt it'd still be super-mainstream if there hadn't been a recent adaptation.**

**Also, if anyone doesn't know, Akai is a canon character, Mongoose Habuko (which sounds weird as hell to say in the Japanese order). It's actually been really tricky writing her because she barely appears and I haven't seen the OVA, but I'll justify any OOC behavior by this AU leading to a radically different childhood than the canon universe. For the purposes of this story, that OVA did not happen so Todoroki does not recognize her.  
**

**Questions for next time: what names do you think Habuko, Asui and Ojiro use for their phone contacts? Also, how long will it take for Ashido to go stir crazy from the quasi-house arrest?  
**


	25. Chapter 25: To Believe or Not To Believe

Chapter 25

Back home, Shouto hadn't paid much attention to Class 1-B. It wasn't because he looked down on them or anything, they just didn't interact that much. They lived in different dorms and didn't share any classes. Aside from the Sports Festival and the summer training camp, he hadn't really gotten a chance to learn about them or their Quirks.

He knew Shiozaki had a powerful vine Quirk, given how easily she beat Kaminari in the Sports Festival. He also knew Tetsutetsu had a steel Quirk that was functionally identical to Kirishima's. Kendo could make parts of her body larger, a fact he only knew because she used it to hit Monoma quite often when he'd come to challenge or mock 1-A for whatever reason.

Ironically enough though, Monoma, who had left the largest impression on Shouto, had never really shown off his Quirk so he didn't know it.

Until now, anyway.

"You've been officially missing for a year now," he said, circling Shouto with his left hand still holding a small flame. Shouto turned his head to follow him, his eyes narrow and wary as Monoma glanced at the flame. "I mean, with a Quirk like this I can certainly see why. I haven't even really tried it yet, but I can already tell how it must work. The fire and ice offset each other perfectly. It's fascinating, I've never actually seen a Quirk that combined two elements like this. The ones I've heard about are usually much weaker or imbalanced than yours."

"Kaitou," Asui croaked. "You're on a tangent again, kero." Monoma hummed, letting the flames flicker and die out as he turned to face Shouto.

"My apologies," he said. "As I was saying, I _do_ understand why you ran away. Villains would absolutely covet this power once they found out about it. No wonder Endeavor kept its exact nature under wraps. Obviously everyone knows about the fire aspect, but with the ice, you'd be even stronger than him. I wonder, how would he feel knowing his son is looking for a villain?"

"I would appreciate you stop mentioning my father," Shouto said tersely.

"Very well," Monoma agreed easily, and Shouto blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected him to agree that quickly, he seemed like the type of person to continually rub something in his face once he knew it made the other person uncomfortable.

"Endeavor aside, why are you looking for Gentle Criminal?" Ojiro spoke up now, stepping forward with a frown. "You grew up _surrounded_ by heroes. You should know better than anyone how dangerous villains are." When Shouto opened his mouth to respond Ojiro cut in, "And yeah, we know you're looking for his partner, not Gentle Criminal." Shouto closed his mouth while the blond continued, "But it's the same end result. You're looking for a _villain_."

His voice had an unusually heated note to it, something even Shouto noticed as oddly out of character. While their interactions back home had been somewhat limited, Ojiro always struck him as rather calm and level-headed. Shouto couldn't recall the boy ever seeming quite so agitated.

He didn't have a chance to dwell on it though before Akai spoke up. "You won't even tell us why you need him!" she shouted, pointing a (noticeably human) finger at him accusingly. "All you said is that you can't go to heroes or police! Do you know how suspicious that is!?"

"Maria-chan says even you don't seem sure on why," Asui interjected. "Rockfish asked if it had to be them, and you didn't have a reasonable explanation, kero."

"It's complicated," Shouto said almost automatically, and Akai made a noise of exasperation and pulled at her hair.

"You're doing it _again_! Did you guys hear that!?"

"Yes, Akai, we heard him," Monoma said dryly, and sighed. "Look, Todoroki, Yuki, whatever you prefer. You _have_ to know how suspicious this is."

"Especially when you have a phone with all of our numbers in it," Ojiro added sharply.

"The point is, we can't trust you," Monoma continued. "As it stands you might be putting us all in danger. You've already met Naota, and he's not the only child."

"Until you tell us why you're here, you're not leaving," Ojiro finished, arms crossing over his chest. Shouto's eyes narrowed at that, calculating his odds as he glanced over the four teens assembled in the room. He didn't want to fight them, either physically or verbally, but more than that he didn't like the obvious threat they posed. He knew Asui and Ojiro's Quirks, and he had a pretty good idea of Monoma's. He sincerely doubted they could beat him.

"If I decide to leave anyway?" he challenged.

Rather than respond Akai used her Quirk, her eyes flashing bright gold. Shouto felt his face go slack with shock a split-second before his body followed suit, collapsing into a pile of limp limbs with his back folding back awkwardly. Oh, he forgot about that one. As he laid there in mild shock Monoma sauntered over and crouched next to him, a smug smirk on his face as they made eye contact.

"I think we can handle you," he said loftily, and _ah,_ there was that condescension he recognized. Shouto just stared at him in mild shock for the scant few seconds before Akai's Quirk wore off, at which point his expression soured. He sat up and pulled his legs from under his body but made no move to do anything else just yet, instead weighing his next move.

On the one hand, he could understand their wariness. After talking to Naota yesterday he understood not even children were safe from villains, so of course someone looking for a person associated with a villain would be a serious threat. On the other hand though, he still didn't know who else was connected to the runaway ring. He still had some concerns about where this "Aya-nee" fit into it. Telling them about his situation could be just as dangerous for himself.

"For what it's worth, I don't think you're bad, kero," Asui piped up, breaking his line of thought. "You protected Naota-kun yesterday, and Kuroe-san seems to think you're a trustworthy person. Even if you saved him, he doesn't trust people easily, kero." Her head tilted, meeting his gaze as she continued in that blunt fashion only she had. "From what Maria and Rockfish say, it sounds like something is bothering you. I know we're strangers and it's hard to trust us, but we just want to make sure everyone's safe. That includes you."

That last part was probably what did it. The way she spoke reminded Shouto of his own Asui, who had repeatedly proven herself to be cool-headed and dependable in class and at the dorms alike. Even though this one might be a stranger, at that moment it felt like he was back home in the middle of some crazy training exercise. Maybe it was just bias from his Asui, but he felt like he could trust her.

A sort of tension eased out of his body as he met her gaze, finally making up his mind.

"I think I'm from another dimension," he said bluntly.

* * *

Monoma Neito considered himself rather knowledgeable about Quirks. It came with the territory of being able to copy them. Along with the whole "able to figure out how they work whenever he copied one" thing, he _also_ needed to know how they worked to make sure he didn't accidentally hurt himself. Copying one guy's sensory enhancing Quirk and ending up with the worst migraine _ever_ had been enough of a lesson.

As such, he had spent most of his elementary school years studying every book on Quirks he could find. Not just books meant for children, but higher-level research studies as well, reports and books packed with technical jargon so dense he probably _still_ wouldn't be able to understand half of it even now. So over the years, he'd learned about some pretty outrageous Quirks.

For example, there had been a man whose Quirk let him turn anything he touched into anthropomorphized versions of cartoon characters of his choice. That was weird. Another person had a Quirk that could physically transport them into dreams, and had gotten stuck in one for about a year when they tried it on a coma patient. A bit scary. He'd even found rumors of a man with a Quirk that could take other Quirks—not copy them, but take them _completely_.

Yes, Neito had learned that pretty much anything could be a Quirk.

That did not make Todoroki Shouto's story any easier to believe.

Neito thought they all deserved some kind of acting award for keeping up their poker faces as Todoroki spoke about going to sleep in a dorm room and randomly waking up in an abandoned building next to a villain. Whom he promptly froze and fled by diving into a river.

"At first I thought he kidnapped me, but then I realized my hair was dyed and thought something was wrong," he explained with a frown. "Then I realized I was in another dimension." It felt like he skipped some steps there. "I've been trying to figure out how I got here, but I don't have much money so I can't go to internet cafes to do much research. UA is closed so I can't go there either, and I couldn't find any hero agencies. I don't think that would be a good idea anyway though."

At that point he paused, and reached up to remove his eyepatch with a frown. "I had all the stuff for a disguise on me, and I dyed my hair. I must have run away a while ago. Turning myself in would probably cause more trouble once this ended. I doubt my father would be willing to listen to my story anyway."

His voice took on a bitter note at the last bit, and Neito noticed Asui and Mongoose exchange discreet but pointed looks. That the two could read each other so well despite their mutation Quirks making their expressions hard to decipher spoke as a testament to their powerful bond.

"You believe Endeavor would not help, kero?" Asui asked.

"He probably wants me to be his heir in this world too," Todoroki replied bluntly. "I figure that's why I ran away, or at least part of it." This time Neito and Ojiro exchanged their own discreet look, and Neito noted that the other blond was not particularly impressed. "Anyways, then I saw Gentle Criminal's last heist on a TV and recognized Tokoyami. He's in my class in my world at UA and always talks about occult stuff, so I thought he might know something and would be able to help."

He fell silent after that, his story apparently finished. For a moment no one spoke, just let his words sink in. "Okay," Mongoose said slowly. "Assuming you're serious and you were actually a student at UA, why didn't you look for other classmates who _weren't_ hanging around villains?"

Todoroki blinked once in apparent surprise. "How?" he asked, and the sheer _innocence_ in his tone, so simple and just ever so slightly confused and _curious_, left them all speechless for a moment.

"I don't know, social media?" Neito suggested with a frown. "Teenagers like to use that stuff, right?"

"Most social media's on lockdown," Ojiro interjected. "I don't think anyone's used their _actual_ name online in, like, five years."

"Really?" Neito looked at him in surprise. He hadn't known that. In his defense, he'd run away in elementary school well before he would use social media. With a Quirk like Copy, he'd realized he couldn't stay safe at home even before the UA Massacre, which had been the wakeup call for so many others. Kids had already been disappearing well before then, and he'd picked up on the pattern quickly and made his exit early.

"It _would_ be hard to find anyone if you didn't know their address, especially from our age group," Asui said thoughtfully. "I guess it makes sense that you might only be able to find someone if they were on TV, kero. It's still an odd coincidence that he works with Gentle Criminal though."

"Is it?" Todoroki considered it for a moment before nodding and answering himself. "It is weird he works with him. He wanted to be a hero." He paused then, looking at them curiously. "Since you're asking about that, does that mean you believe me?"

"...Can you give us a minute?" Ojiro asked, and Todoroki nodded. The four runaways ducked behind the curtain, Neito shooting him a final glance before letting it close behind him. In contrast to the front part of the room, the back had rather ample lighting and furniture. It wasn't much, just some rundown couches and chairs, two tables and a few random chests and wardrobes, but it was _something_.

On one couch sat two more members of their network, an older teen boy with overly large pointed ears and another with considerably plainer features. The plain one stood up as they entered, and as they got closer he formed a cube shape with his hands and blew on it. The cube expanded to enclose the small group of six, just barely encompassing the space around the couch and blocking all sound from exiting.

"You guys heard that, right?" Ojiro asked flatly.

"Yep," the boy with pointed ears replied just as flat. Nakamura Shizuo had a rather _fascinating_ Quirk in Neito's opinion, the ability to mute all sounds made by a person, whether himself or another person. Hence the obvious name, _Mute_. It also made the affected person's hearing hyper-sensitive for the duration of Mute's effects, making it a perfect Quirk for espionage.

"He said he's from another dimension, right?" the plain boy, Tsuburaba Kosei, asked. "Because I _think_ I heard him say that, but I just want to be sure."

"He did," Asui confirmed, and he nodded.

"Oh good. So I'm not going crazy."

"_He's_ the one who's crazy!" Mongoose quite literally hissed. "Who the hell's ever heard of a Quirk that could go into other dimensions!?"

"Not me," Neito said bluntly. He'd seen some theories that such a thing might be possible, but it had been just that—_theories_. Honestly, the odds were so low he'd peg any other Quirk before _that_ one. Like a memory manipulation Quirk. Or a really bad duplication Quirk. Or, you know, _lying_.

Literally anything but actual other dimensions.

Asui had her finger on her chin again, her head tipped to the side thoughtfully. "He doesn't seem like he's lying. At the very least, he seems to believe it."

"That does not make it _true_," Mongoose hissed.

"No, but I don't think he has malicious intent. I don't think he's working with villains, kero."

"That doesn't mean we can _trust_ him!" Ojiro snapped, and Asui flinched at his harsh tone. His voice carried an unusual anger, his face twisted into an uncharacteristically furious scowl. Unsurprising, considering his best friend had been recently kidnapped by villains.

And that was the crux of the issue: Todoroki was here looking for a _villain_.

Nearly everyone in Odawara had run away because of villains, whether because they'd been targeted as recruits for their Quirks or they'd seen too much. Gentle Criminal and his partner might be seen as chivalrous by some, but they did not look at him that way. They were still reeling from the loss of one of their own, and letting Todoroki search for him for such a flimsy reason was too much of a risk.

Ojiro was clearly taking the situation rather personally, so Neito decided to step in to do damage control now. "I think Asui is right about him believing that," he said. "I mean, if he was going to lie, why would he go with _that_?" The others just nodded in agreement, some of the tension fading. Trans-dimensional travel _was_ a pretty ridiculous story to come up with on the spot. "That said, I do think he might be under the influence of another Quirk."

"That isn't much better though," Tsuburaba muttered as he scratched his neck. "I mean, what if someone's using him to get information on us?"

"I kinda doubt that," Nakamura interjected before Mongoose could go off on another rant. "If it were literally anyone else, I might believe it. But Endeavor's kid is _way_ too valuable for villains to just use as a pawn. Too much chance of him getting found out and rescued."

"The whole plan seems like it would be rather contrived, too," Neito agreed with a sigh. "He's looking for two villains, believing one is a classmate from his own world, and they happen to be operating around Odawara. If a villain was going to implant false memories, there are many, many, _many_ better ones."

"Not to mention the part about Endeavor," Asui added, and the group exchanged grimaces. That alone raised many concerns, but none of them felt too keen on pressing him on that detail. That scar Todoroki sported in the photo they'd found of him probably didn't come from an accident after all, and they knew better than to press something so potentially personal and sensitive.

"Anyways," Neito said after a beat, "I think he's _probably_ not a pawn, but there's still definitely something going on. He's more likely a victim, so we should keep an eye on him."

"We were going to do that anyway," Ojiro snorted with an eye roll. "Not like we can call the police in this case." Turning in Todoroki, even if they believed it to be for his own good, wasn't an option. As the boy himself had pointed out, he'd probably had reasons for running away before all this mess started. Reporting him may put him in more danger in the end.

"Should we tell everyone else about this, kero?" Asui asked.

"Yes," Mongoose and Ojiro said at the same time Nakamura said, "No." When they turned to look at him he shrugged. "I'm not saying we should hide the situation, but we shouldn't tell them everything. It'd just cause unnecessary panic. It's not like many people actually know about this anyway."

That part was true. When Shiozaki had called Asui to report "Yuki" wanted to find Gentle Criminal and his sidekick for some reason, they'd kept it confined to a small, core group until they could properly investigate. The fact was, it _would_ cause heavy panic if everyone knew, especially after the recent kidnapping.

At present, aside from Shiozaki and Kouda, the only other person who knew was the network's coordinator Nettmegg, who didn't even _live_ in Odawara. And that was only because they needed someone to send an SOS if Todoroki suddenly attacked. Even Tsuburaba hadn't been given the full details until that morning after they'd planned the confrontation, and only because his Quirk might be useful in confining Todoroki.

So telling everyone of Todoroki's delusions might not be strictly necessary. "I say we should at least warn them to be careful around him," Tsuburaba spoke up. "I just—it feels risky to let them go up to him randomly and accidentally tell him critical information, in case he _is_ being used as a mole."

"We can say he's on a probationary period," Asui suggested. "That we've vetted him for the most part, but he has connections to heroes that might come looking for him. That's at least true."

"Yeah, it is," Mongoose relented. Some of her earlier tension had finally started to fade, going back to a more analytical and thoughtful mindset. "But I think we should at least tell Glitch to keep an eye on him. He's our best fighter."

"That's fine by me," Nakamura agreed. "I'd also suggest reading in Maria, Rockfish and Parasyte. Rockfish can keep a better eye on him, and Parasyte's pretty strong too and might stand a chance if Todoroki goes berserk. Though he's been acting a little weird lately, so maybe not _everything_," he added thoughtfully.

"Yes, he has," Neito murmured, and nodded to himself. "At the very least, we can let him know Todoroki's probably under the influence of a Quirk and keep an eye on him." The others nodded in agreement, the plan taking shape smoothly.

"This is good and all, but how do we handle him searching for Gentle Criminal?" Ojiro asked before they could be too satisfied. "Because I don't think he's gonna stop that easily." That would definitely be a problem. Regardless of the reason Todoroki was actually searching for the man and his partner, the search would cause trouble.

"Maybe if we just... play along?" Tsuburaba muttered to himself, and stiffened when all eyes turned to him.

"Continue," Neito said after a moment, and Tsuburaba bobbed his head.

"Uh, well, he's looking for them because he thinks this Tokoyami guy might be able to help figure out the dimension thing, right? So if we play along and help him look into this or, whatever, he won't have to look for them anymore. We can even help look for this Tokoyami guy, cause I mean, it's probably not like he's _real_, right?" A brief silence fell as they considered it.

"...Mime, that might be the best plan," Nakamura finally said. "You get extra curry tonight." Tsuburaba lit up with a wide grin.

"Heck yeah!" As he cheered Neito glanced at the curtain, thinking about Todoroki on the other side. This whole thing would be a dangerous gamble, but then, everything was when you lived on the streets like this. He just hoped this one would pay off. After all, adding Todoroki as an ally would be a boon for them.

* * *

Around that same time, Kageyama Kas found himself sitting in a cafe across the street from Ashido and Kirishima's apartment building. The place and people might be different but the routine felt familiar, already slipping into old habits as he idly sipped at his coffee. This wasn't his first time playing bodyguard for a couple of kids who became high-profile targets overnight, and it likely wouldn't be the last.

At the moment he wasn't too concerned about any threats to the kids. It had barely been twenty-four hours since everything went down, too soon for word to really spread enough to generate interest. Later he might have to herd them into one apartment and stay there depending on how things played out, but for now he could keep a bit of distance and relax, and call up Saki.

She'd called him back at the station, but he'd had to cut it short since he had to escort the kids. Now that they'd settled in for the day he could call her back though. Guard duty could get pretty boring anyway, so he welcomed any break to the usual tedium. And the Uraraka case she wanted to fill him in on fit the bill perfectly.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty weird," he agreed once she finished summing up the details. He'd plugged in his earbuds and put the phone on speaker, idly playing a puzzle game while he listened. "I know it's too soon to make any real assumptions yet, but I'd say your gut's probably right on this one. Have you talked to your boss about it yet?"

"_Not yet,_" she sighed on the other end. "_I wanted to be absolutely sure before I tell anyone. I talked to Mail obviously, and he's pretty split on it too._"

"It _is_ a pretty tricky thing to talk about," Kas agreed lightly. "Maybe focus on finding that Alien Queen girl from her memories first, and decide after that?"

"_That's what Mail suggested. Nighteye's already called up UA about it and someone's heading over now to take a look at the sketch. It'll probably go into circulation by tomorrow, apparently the people at Idaten have someone with a Quirk that's great for matching faces so they'll probably be the first stop._"

"Text a picture to me. I got temporary access to one of the local school's student rosters, I can take a look and see if I can find them."

"_You're just looking for something to do, aren't you?_" she asked, but halfway through the quality of her voice became slightly distant signifying she'd switched to speaker.

"Absolutely," he confirmed with a grin. About a minute passed in silence as she presumably switched out of the phone app to take a picture of the sketch. Soon a text notification appeared at the top of his screen, and he switched over to the messenger as she resumed talking.

"_Alright, sent. For the record, everything about her is pink. Should make it easier to look through the thumbnails at least, right?_"

Kas didn't respond, just stared at the picture with disbelief. "_Holy shit,_" he whispered in English.

"_Kas?_" Saki pressed, and he had to suppress the urge to laugh as a wide grin stretched across his face.

"Cancel the search. Your girl is Ashido Mina, one of the latest stars out of Kamino."

* * *

**And so Todoroki convinces everyone he's insane or under the effects of a Quirk, but they go along with it anyway because it's easier to keep an eye on him. Also, it only took one chapter for the folks at Nighteye to make the connection to Ashido. That's gotta be a record!**

**Also, something 100% unrelated to MHA: are there any Animal Crossing fans here? Because New Horizons is coming out Friday and I am STOKED. But more than that, I am ecstatic because my all-time favorite AC site, AXA, has gotten a sudden revival. I literally grew up with that forum (joined when I was 11!), and I credit it with shaping me into who I am today, from all the friends I made to the stories I posted there. I learned about its revival last Thursday, the day after my birthday, and that news is honestly the best birthday gift I've ever gotten, no exaggeration. All the old content has been lost, but the people are back and it's amazing.**

**If you want to join an amazing Animal Crossing community, please go to axaforums .ca! (Note: do not go to .com, it's been bought out by some shady company and brings up a string of Chinese characters so might not be safe.) I would normally never do such a shameless plug, but I love this community so much. Forums have this sense of community that social media and sites like reddit or Discord just can't match.**

**And finally: right now, the world is on lockdown from Coronavirus. This is a pretty scary time, even though a lot of us aren't at risk the disease is so contagious that it makes us carriers for the ones who ARE. I don't know if everyone's overreacting with how much the world is shutting down, but I hope everyone reading this is safe and sound. At the very least, we are living through a historic event and this will make for some crazy stories someday.**

**Question for next time: who do you think actually WOULD believe the multiverse story?  
**


	26. Chapter 26: Sweet, Sweet Adrenaline

Chapter 26

.::Sweet, Sweet Adrenaline::.

_Maybe it's time to finally get a phone,_ Ochaco mused idly to herself. She was standing in the middle of a chain convenience store, her attention focused on a display of burner phones. They were all cheap flip models, with a number of options to allow for phone calls, texts and even limited internet access. All of them were relatively cheap.

She soon shook her head and forced herself to turn away though, turning into a nearby aisle to cut to the cash register. She had come in only to get some quick and affordable food items and snacks, bandages to hide cheeks and a flashlight. All simple and relatively cheap items, but useful for her search for Deku. _Sorry Dabi, I'll have to wait a little longer to call you._

This marked her third day in Nabu, though only her second of searching. After waiting for a break in the storm to run to the train station on Friday, she'd gotten to Nabu a bit after sunset. Searching an unfamiliar town after dark seemed like a bad idea so she had decided to just get dinner and find a place to stay for the night.

Dabi hadn't joined her, wanting to look for his brother elsewhere. He'd been nice enough to give her some cash to rent a motel room before they parted ways though. "_It's way too cold to sleep outside tonight without some sort of heat Quirk,_" he'd told her when she tried to refuse. "_And net cafes aren't actually as safe as you'd think. Just take the cash, I can get more._" His insistence had been a little heart-warming, and she smiled faintly at the memory. For all his gruff demeanor, the guy was surprisingly soft.

_I can't believe I actually miss him,_ she thought idly as she counted out change to pay for her items. Back in her world the name Dabi had been taboo among their class, everyone scared of triggering a flashback for Bakugou. As a result she knew barely anything about him, but she sincerely doubted he was _close_ to as nice as he'd been here. He'd even given her a paper with his phone number, insisting she call the second she got a phone to let him know she was safe.

Ochaco felt a little guilty for not buying a burner now, but she wanted to focus on finding Deku first. Burners might be cheap but she had limited funds, and she had no idea how long she'd need her money to last or what else she'd need to buy before she found him. Besides, once she _did_ find him chances were the phone would be taken away anyway.

The thought left an unpleasant curl in her stomach which she steadfastly ignored as she left the convenience store and headed for a nearby park. Yesterday had been spent mostly just wandering the city aimlessly to try to familiarize herself with it. At one point she'd spied a sort of tourist center and popped inside to snag a map with local landmarks, scurrying out before any of the workers could question her.

She steered away from the busy playground to find a bench in a quieter area of the park, and pulled out the map and a pen from her backpack. She'd already crossed off a few areas as unlikely, starting with every landmark on the map. Something told her the League of Villains—or, Villain Alliance, apparently—wouldn't be hiding out in the local equivalent of Tokyo Tower. The Alliance probably wouldn't want to be around highly populated areas with lots of tourists milling about.

...Although the thought of a bunch of villains hiding in a famous temple _did_ make her have to stifle a giggle.

She blushed a bit when she noticed a passing dog walker looking at her weirdly and slapped her cheek with her free hand, huffing quietly to herself._ Focus, Ochaco!_ Back to the point, they wouldn't want to be somewhere too public so she'd have to focus on more urban zones. Somewhere like the area she'd met Dabi on Friday, but not _as_ shady. They wouldn't want to be _too_ obvious after all. At the very least, they'd probably want to be somewhere that wouldn't be likely to be searched by someone like Uwabami or Ragdoll.

The last thought made Ochaco pause. Come to think of it, were the Wild Wild Pussycats even a thing in this dimension? She frowned, not really sure. She hadn't seen anything about them on the news, but then she hadn't really noticed since they'd been equally quiet in her own world. Her stomach twisted at the memory of _why_ they hadn't been active recently, her grip tightening around her pen.

_I'm seriously trying to find the same people who caused all this._ Not for the first time it struck her how _crazy_ it was to be actively seeking out the League. If any of her classmates saw her now they'd probably be horrified. Her teachers would probably drag her back to school and throw her in remedial classes until she graduated, assuming they didn't expel her for being so reckless.

Really, it'd probably be smarter to look for Pro Heroes and tell them everything. They might not believe her at first, but she remembered there was a detective who'd interviewed everyone after the USJ incident with a lie detector Quirk. And even if he couldn't confirm she wasn't crazy, surely all the stuff she knew about her teachers should be enough to convince them. No way was a dimension-jumping Quirk the craziest thing out there.

It would be smarter. Safer.

_But Deku didn't have that choice,_ a voice whispered inside her head, and her teeth ground at the thought.

As best as she could tell Deku had woken up in the middle of the League, surrounded by enemies with no way out. He didn't seem to be in any danger himself judging by his brief interaction with "Tomu-nii" (and her stomach still _flipped_ at the thought of _anyone_ calling Shigaraki that), but that didn't make it any safer. Who knew what he'd witnessed there since waking up? What he might have been forced to do?

No, Ochaco couldn't just ignore Deku. Even if she found some heroes and they believed her about everything, that didn't mean they'd help _him_. She'd been on the Overhaul raid. She hadn't been there from the very start, but she'd been there long enough to recognize when heroes would deem a mission's premise too risky to justify, and this time was no exception.

As far as the Pro Heroes were concerned Deku was stuck in the heart of enemy territory, maybe even an accomplice. On top of that, she didn't even have solid proof that he _was_ her Deku; her word wouldn't be enough, so convincing them would be a challenge in itself. Even if they believed her and _rightfully_ viewed Deku as a victim, going to the heart of the Alliance just to rescue one boy would be too dangerous. There just wasn't enough for them to justify the risk.

This time, she _had_ to go find Deku herself.

She jumped to her feet and shoved the map and pen into her jacket's pocket, her resolve reaffirmed. The day was still young, just after ten in the morning, and she had several hours before sunset. The more ground she covered, the better! With that in mind she took off in a random direction, veering further and further away from the more populated areas in her attempts to find a suitable location for the Alliance.

One hour later, Ochaco came to the conclusion she was lost.

"I am an idiot," she groaned, her forehead resting squarely against a stone wall. She hadn't bothered paying too much attention while wandering around, and now found herself in an area of the city that didn't just seem shady or down on its luck, it seemed to be outright _abandoned_. None of the buildings looked like they'd been touched in a while, and she hadn't seen a single person in the last fifteen minutes.

Yeah, no way the Alliance would set up base here. The place felt too dead even for a bunch of villains. As far as Ochaco could tell, there must have been some sort of big fight here a long time ago. More than a few buildings had giant gaping holes in their sides and fronts, and even the road had large cracks and chunks missing. While the rubble had been cleaned up, clearly the area had been deemed not worth repairing.

Unfortunately, the damage also meant there weren't any street signs, so her map was currently useless. She huffed through her nose as she pulled away from the wall, turning to survey the area. It seemed to have been mostly an industrial or business district. There weren't any houses, though she saw what might be office or apartment buildings. Some of them were pretty tall, so she could always climb one to get a better vantage point.

Her gaze trailed to the taller buildings, silently calculating if she could float up there. The last two times she'd used her Quirk on herself, she'd gotten nauseous way faster than she should so she wasn't sure. As she skimmed over one building a flash of black from one window caught her eye, and her gaze snapped back to it to see someone looking out.

_Huh?_ She blinked and rubbed her eyes, but when she looked again the window was empty. Ochaco stood still for several long moments, staring up at it. A sudden cold feeling washed over her, and she slowly backed away before ducking into the nearest half-demolished store. For some reason her heart pounded, her instincts _screaming_ she wasn't alone.

Quickly surveying the shop, she frowned at the dusty floor before her eyes zeroed in on a partially open door towards the back leading to another room. After a second's hesitation she lightly tapped all five fingers against one arm just as she hopped forward, floating across the room in two seconds flat. She quickly disabled her Quirk before nausea could kick in and slipped through the door, careful not to actually touch it. It seemed to be a storage space, with another open door leading outside.

As she edged towards it she heard noises from the front, making her freeze. "Hey, you sure you saw someone around here?" a gruff voice grumbled, and her stomach turned to ice. Another voice harshly shushed the first one, barely audible over the sudden rush of blood to her ears. _Someone was here._

"If ya did, they're not here," someone else scoffed. "The floor's way too dusty." The remark got a grunt, and Ochaco swallowed dryly as she listened to footsteps move away. As quietly as she could she inched towards the back door and peered outside. It led to an alleyway, and after a second's hesitation she slipped out and took off, heart pounding anxiously the entire time.

Maybe this area wouldn't be a bust after all.

* * *

Meanwhile in Hosu, one Satou Rikido was currently standing in the baking aisle of a grocery store looking at piping bags for icing. He had a basket already full of ingredients for a homemade red velvet cake, including two cartons of fresh eggs and two bags of flour, so now he just needed the piping bags to actually decorate it.

Rikido had moved to Hosu from his hometown in Tottori Prefecture right after graduating middle school, having been accepted into a high school with an exceptional culinary program. The fact he got accepted surprised him, since the school was highly competitive. Baking had only been an idle hobby in the past, spurred by curiosity about his Quirk which drew strength from sugar; he hadn't expected to be good enough to make the cut.

In the past six months he'd learned more about baking than the entire previous fifteen _years_. His free time outside of class was usually spent in his cousin's kitchen, practicing and experimenting with everything from pastries to breads. At this point he'd taken over the space and a majority of the fridge space, but fortunately Furuko didn't mind too much.

He really couldn't express how grateful he was to Furuko for housing him. Most of his extended family was wary of him baking because as a kid he'd use his Quirk every time he saw them. Little kids just loved showing off their Quirks whenever possible, and at family gatherings with cousins you don't get too see too often, wild Quirk usage was even more common. And his happened to make him a bit more destructive than most.

Converting sugar to strength was actually a conscious decision on his end so he didn't _automatically_ become a sugar-high Hulk every time he ate candy. It might as well have been though, with how often he'd use it. Given his Quirk _also_ decreased his intelligence, it made it easier for his other cousins to talk him into doing really stupid stuff. Like jumping off a tree. Or jumping into a lake. Or charging into the room where the adults were and pelting them with paint-filled balloons.

Furuko in particular had gotten some of the worst of their shenanigans. She'd been the oldest of the cousins, so it usually fell to her to wrangle all the hyperactive kids together. Looking back he was amazed she didn't hate his guts; he was pretty sure he had more memories of her glaring at him than smiling.

So yeah, the fact she agreed to let him stay with her, and also _bake in her kitchen_ despite his track record, was something he'd never be thank her enough for. He tried though, namely by giving Furuko first rights to taste tests for _everything_, and handling as many chores as possible. She worked long hours and was usually too tired to cook when she got home anyway, so she said it was enough that he'd make her dinner.

Today's project wasn't a display of gratitude though, but actually a formal request. See, Furuko worked as a police officer. Nothing special like a detective, she mostly handled the traffic beat or paperwork at the office. But her job also meant she'd gotten to know some of the local Pro Heroes, particularly at Team Idaten.

And tomorrow was someone's birthday.

Rikido didn't know _whose_ birthday it was. While Ingenium operated publicly, many of the sidekicks preferred to keep their identities secret. For that reason Furuko couldn't say if it was Ingenium, a sidekick, or even just the receptionist. Actually, it might not even _be_ someone from Team Idaten. He just kinda assumed because, well, _Hosu_.

Still, the recipient didn't matter. They couldn't hire a professional baker due to security concerns, so Furuko had volunteered his services. Rikido absolutely did not mind her doing that without asking him. Just knowing that _Pro Heroes_ would be eating his cake around this time tomorrow filled him with excitement. His childhood dream of being a hero might have died years ago after the UA Massacre, but he'd never lost his awe and wonder for those who continued to work in that profession.

That meant this cake had to be _perfect_. He pulled a pack of tips for piping bags off the shelf, examining it with a critical eye. Furuko had specified the cake needed to have vanilla icing with red flowers around the edges, and he would make them the best flowers _ever_. If all went well, Rikido might become the _pâtissier_ of choice for the heroes present at the party, and nothing would make him happier.

As he weighed whether this pack would be suitable he heard a crash from the front of the store, and he turned just in time to see someone _zoom_ past the end of the aisle making some high-pitched squealing sound. Huh. That was weird. A moment later he heard another shout and then saw a guy getting _flung_ through the air from the direction the first figure had zoomed, making him freeze.

Okay, something was _definitely_ going on. He slowly reached into his basket for a bag of chocolate chips, quietly tearing it open as he watched the end of the aisle. A moment later he saw another figure dart past, too brief to see much detail, but he thought he saw a flash of black and violet. Seconds later yet another figure followed, but then he heard the audible sound of sneakers scuffing against the floor and head back towards him, making him tense further.

A head poked around the corner, and it only heightened his wariness. The person wore a black hood and with an orange plastic band covering their upper face, and a fabric mask with a lightning bolt drawn on it. "_Satou_?" they asked in surprise, and Rikido blinked.

"Uh, do I know you?" he asked, immediately cautious and guarded. He instinctively reached into the bag of chocolate chips and closed his fist around a large chunk, ready to chug down a handful. If someone was trying to rob the place and wanted to take him hostage, he was absolutely willing to throw a shelf at a guy.

"Uhhhh... Does 1-A mean anything to you?" the stranger asked, and he frowned.

"No. Should it?"

"Um... Guess not." The guy's voice sounded kinda dejected, but he then perked up as he added hastily, "But I mean! It will soon! Be sure to tell all your friends about the 1-A Vi—"

"TASER-BRAIN, YOU IDIOT, WATCH OUT!" someone shouted, and the masked face turned just in time to shout as someone plowed into him. Rikido blinked as he watched the masked guy go flying into the air, a weird man sitting on what looked like a giant Roomba with a handle attached shrieking with delight as he zoomed past.

"Whee!" he shouted—as in literally shouted the word "_whee_"—and Rikido just stared. The masked guy fell to the floor face-down with a loud thump, making him wince.

"Uh... are you okay?" he asked hesitantly, and the mystery guy weakly raised one hand in a thumbs up.

"Hah, this is nothing," he mumbled, but his voice was suspiciously shaky. Another figure appeared next to him, wearing a similar outfit and mask/visor combo but with a violet dress and chunky boots, looking down at him with an audible sigh.

"You are an absolute idiot," she said flatly. "First rule of vigilantism is to always keep an eye on the villain. _Always._"

"Sorry," the masked guy mumbled, and the other person sighed.

"I am going to chase that guy back here, and you are going to tase him—" She stopped short as Rikido snapped a photo, his phone's camera shutter audibly clicking, and turned to look at him. "You—did you just take a photo?"

"Yep," he replied flatly. By this point he'd realized that these two were not, in fact, villains, but probably vigilantes. His classmates _had_ been talking a lot about some blog post about a new pair making their big debut on Wednesday. Something about one of them having tasers.

"...Screw it, don't care. Post it all over social media or whatever. As I was saying," she continued, turning back to the guy on the ground. "I'm going to chase that weirdo back here, you are going to tase him, and then we are going to get the hell out of here because there is _no way_ someone hasn't called the police yet. Got it?"

"Got it," the guy on the ground mumbled, and the other one ran off while Rikido just casually returned the bag of chocolate chips to his basket.

"What was that you were saying about 1-A?" he asked, and the guy groaned as he got up.

"The 1-A Vigilantes," he said, and turned to show the 1-A embroidered on the back of his hoodie while offering Rikido another thumbs up. The pose was probably meant to be cool, but it felt half-hearted since he was obviously still sore from his fall. Rikido snapped another photo anyway, and was pretty sure the guy shot him an unimpressed look given how his shoulders slumped. "Really, dude?"

Rikido just shrugged. He didn't have a chance to say anything before they heard a voice approaching. "Whee—_gackh_!" The weirdo's voice cut off with a noise of surprise while the vigilante spun to point a finger-gun his way, electricity arcing from his fingertip. A gargled noise of pain sounded and Rikido snapped one more picture.

The vigilante quickly jogged forward and Rikido followed, poking his head out of the aisle to see him and his partner kneeling by the Roomba-guy. The thing he'd been riding—which now that it wasn't moving, he saw _wasn't_ a Roomba but actually a round... stone... skateboard... puck... _thing_, with a handle and a snowplow-like attachment on the front—was stuck in a glob of pink goo. The villain had obviously been thrown off, groaning as female vigilante zip-tied his hands behind his back.

Rikido snapped a picture of the scene, getting a decent view of the starbursts on the girl's mask and the 1-A on the guy's back, and then opened his Instagram. Usually he used it to post pictures of his baking creations, earning himself a steady following, but sometimes he posted other stuff. He uploaded the latest photo and typed a caption.

'_Just met these guys the grocery by Cable. Call themselves the 1-A Vigilantes I guess?_' He submitted it and then uploaded the photo of the guy giving a thumbs up while showing off his back, typing, '_Also this guy got thrown into the air & kept giving me thumbs up. Other one called him Taser-Brain so maybe that's his name._' And send.

With that done he closed out of Instagram and pulled up the dial screen to call the police. Hey, Rikido was still a law-abiding citizen. If these guys wanted to be vigilantes then good on them, but this grocery store had the _best_ discounts and staff. No way was he going to wait to see if they'd be able to stop this guy from doing... whatever, _before_ he destroyed the store.

As he began talking to the operator Taser-Brain turned to him with a frustrated, "Really, man!?" The other one just tugged his arm and they took off for the door, leaving the villain groaning on the ground. As Rikido stepped out of the aisle he noted several displays near the front had been knocked over, no doubt toppled by the villain's joy ride. One of the cashiers was helping another man get to his feet, probably the one Rikido had seen go flying earlier.

All in all, everything seemed fine for the most part, no serious damage done. As he waited for the police to show up he returned to the aisle to grab the last things he'd need for the cake, hoping the questioning wouldn't take too long. He still needed to make that cake after all.

* * *

**Writing the vigilante scene from an outside perspective was fun. ****Today's villain has a Quirk that makes stuff super-slippery. He likes to ride around crowded stores and knock stuff and people over, causing as much destruction as possible just for fun. With this chapter, I think I've shown everyone from Class 1-A except Hagakure and Aoyama. (And also Aizawa technically hehehe)**

**Also, Animal Crossing came out on Friday and I spent the past weekend in heaven. Again, if you play Animal Crossing, please check out axaforums .ca! Even if you can't play online, there's plenty of fun discussion going on there, and I can't emphasize how awesome the people are. I've been hosting a game of Mafia in the Word Games section and that's a blast.**

**Question for next time: where do you think Hagakure and Aoyama are?**


	27. Chapter 27: Not So Lazy Sunday

Chapter 26

.::Not So Lazy Sunday::.

Izuku's plan to get Bakugou and Shinsou out of their cells was simple, really. All they needed to do was convince Shigaraki and all the other villains that they'd become friends with Izuku and wanted to protect him.

They still hadn't come up with a plan for their overall escape, but getting the others out of their cells would be a good start. His counterpart's journal claimed there had already been plans underway to make Bakugou his bodyguard due to their connection and similar ages, so the groundwork had already been set. Having him cooperate and put on an act that they'd gotten over their previous issues would make it _much_ easier for Izuku to convince the others.

Izuku doubted Bakugou would be given total freedom that easily—the Alliance would probably still keep a close eye on him for a while—but hopefully he would at least be allowed to leave his room sometimes. Shinsou would be another thing though. Even though he'd been there longer than Bakugou, he'd been obstinate and resistant since getting captured, so the Alliance would probably see his cooperation as a ruse to escape.

After talking it over, they'd concluded that he wouldn't get the muzzle removed anytime soon even if he was allowed to leave his room. The realization made Izuku feel miserable, but the vigilante had assured him he could deal with it a bit longer. Until then they decided to start small and work their way up, starting with getting Bakugou out of the handcuffs. According to him, just losing those would be a significant improvement.

With luck, they'd be able to accomplish that today. Which was why Izuku found himself in the bar, trying to be as casual as possible as he strolled up to Shigaraki. The older male was sitting at the counter playing a game like usual, giving no indication he noticed Izuku. "Hey, Tomura-nii," he greeted, and got a grunt in response.

It slightly discouraged him, making him worry that talking to him would just annoy the villain, but he pushed down the thought. He had to do this for Kacchan and Shinsou, no matter how awkward he felt. So he steeled his nerves and pressed on, "Uh, if you're not busy today, c-could we hang out? It's just, it's been a while, and I kinda miss you."

Shigaraki's eyes finally flicked his way, glancing at him for only a brief moment before returning to the screen. Izuku felt himself deflate slightly, but before he could get too dejected Shigaraki set down the console and swiveled on the stool to face him. "What did you have in mind?" he asked, propping a hand on his chin, and Izuku perked up.

"I don't have anything in mind, really. Maybe we could play games?" He didn't really know what else he and Shigaraki did together. The only other times they'd hung out had been watching movies that first day when Shigaraki thought he was sick and that shopping trip, which had _also_ been to go buy games.

Shigaraki hummed, drumming his fingers against his cheek. "Yeah, but we _always_ do that, so maybe something else," he muttered. "Maybe—"

"Perhaps you could help Izuku with his schoolwork?" Kurogiri suggested smoothly, and they both turned to look at the misty man as he polished a glass behind the counter. "He has fallen a bit behind with everything that's happened lately. Helping with homework is an excellent bonding activity for brothers."

"Seriously?" Shigaraki muttered with a scowl. "But that's—"

"Education is important, Shigaraki Tomura," Kurogiri cut him off coolly, turning glowing golden eyes his way.

Which was why half an hour later they were sitting on the floor in Izuku's room hunched over a bunch of worksheets and textbooks. Izuku still felt kind of dazed thinking that this was actually happening. Apparently Kurogiri's disapproving glare affected more than just Izuku, because Shigaraki hadn't even _tried_ to argue.

Honestly, he didn't get why Kurogiri suggested it though. Yeah, he _had_ fallen a bit behind, but Shigaraki wasn't exactly his first choice to help him with it. In fact, Izuku had spent most of the time so far explaining _everything_ to him.

"And that's the difference between Oda Nobunaga and Oda Nobuhide," he finished tiredly. Part of him wanted to cry that he'd had to spend so much time explaining the difference given Nobunaga was one of _the_ most prominent figures in Japanese history. The urge only grew stronger because Shigaraki _still_ didn't look like he fully understood, his eyes narrowed in irritation as he squinted at the textbook.

"So Nobunaga's the father?" he asked, and yep, Izuku really wanted to cry.

"No, he's the son," he corrected, feeling a bit of his soul die while Shigaraki just scoffed.

"Why do you even need to _know_ this?" he grumbled as he scratched his neck.

"I don't know, Tomura-nii. I don't know." And he didn't. Izuku really, _really_ didn't. Maybe it was just because he'd spent the past fifteen minutes trying to explain it, but he just did not see how knowing the whole history of Nobunaga's conquest would be helpful in fixing this mess right now. Looking at the textbooks and homework made his soul ache, and he sighed. "Let's take a break."

"Finally," Shigaraki grunted, shoving the papers away. "I don't see why Kurogiri insists on you learning all this stuff. _I_ don't need it." Izuku wondered that too, it just took up valuable time he could be using to help save Kacchan and Shinsou and _maybe_ try to fix everything somehow.

"I don't think he'll let me stop," he groaned mournfully as he started cleaning everything up. Shigaraki just grunted, sounding distracted, and when Izuku glanced over at him he found the villain looking at the posters. His stomach flipped briefly, reminded of how much Shigaraki _hated_ Pro Heroes, and he half-wondered if they might be irritating him. Maybe inviting him to his room was a bad idea.

He was about to suggest they go somewhere else when Shigaraki spoke up. "Are you still a big fan of that Present Mic guy?" he asked, and the question was so out of the blue and _casual_ it took Izuku a second to process it.

"Uh, yeah, I am." He glanced at the poster Shigaraki stared at to find one of several posters for Mic's radio show, this one unfamiliar to him and showing him with Thirteen, Ragdoll from Wild Wild Pussycats and Skylight from Team Storm Chaser. '_Let's rescue the world from boredom!_' read the text beneath it, making him smile.

Shigaraki grunted, scratching his neck. "I guess he's not _too_ annoying," he grumbled after a few seconds, sounding almost grudging and reluctant. Izuku looked at him in mild surprise and confusion before he realized what Shigaraki was doing. _He was trying to bond with him over his interests._ The realization threw him for a loop, rendering him speechless for a few seconds.

All this time he'd been thinking of how to best get closer to Shigaraki using his interests, but he hadn't really thought of the older boy doing the same. Relationships were a two-way street, sure, but it just hadn't seemed like Shigaraki would bother doing that. Especially when it came to Pro Heroes, who again, Shigaraki _hated_. But then, in this world they were apparently brothers, so maybe he shouldn't be so surprised.

Recognizing the attempt to bond for what it was, Izuku felt like he had to at least respond to his attempt. "I've been listening to a lot of his show's older episodes this week," he said. "It's kinda interesting hearing all the changes in music trends, and there's been a couple funny interviews too. Like, one time he interviewed this big actor, but he was obviously really full of himself. Mic ended up asking him all these questions and made him look like an idiot."

It wasn't really a story but to his surprise Shigaraki actually snorted at that, cracking a small smirk. "I heard that one. That guy had no idea what he was doing, pretty good hearing him get told off." When he noticed Izuku's obvious surprise he shrugged and explained, "The interview was about a movie based on one of my favorite games. It sucked, and I wanted to hear if he'd try to defend it."

"He did an awful job," Izuku said with a smile, and Shigaraki _laughed_, just a short one and a bit raspy but still genuine enough.

"He did. He obviously knew nothing about the actual game. Pretty sure that Present Mic never played it either, but he at least sounded like he'd done _some_ research." He shook his head, clearly amused, and Izuku felt himself relax. He never thought he'd be able to have a civil, _pleasant_ conversation about a hero with Shigaraki, but here they were. It made some his tension and nerves finally fade.

"Have you listened to any of his other shows?" he asked curiously, and Shigaraki shrugged.

"Not really. Some of the guys like to put his show on in the bar sometimes though. Say it's for the music or gathering intel or something, I don't really pay much attention. That reminds me though," he added, glancing at Izuku curiously. "Any ideas who he's talking to at the end?"

It took a second for the question's meaning to register, and when it did Izuku felt his smile fall, instantly growing more somber. "No, I don't." He'd noticed the more recent shows had always signed off with a message to Mic's "_favorite listener_," and the messages painted a grim picture. Izuku had tried not to think on it too hard, afraid of who he might be talking about. "Kacchan said he started doing that around May."

The words slipped out almost thoughtlessly. Izuku didn't miss the way Shigaraki minutely stiffened at the mention of Kacchan, red eyes flicking his way sharply. "You've been spending a lot of time around Bakugou," he observed, and Izuku was sure he heard a calculating edge to his tone.

"Yeah, we have," he agreed with a nod, mentally steeling his nerves. Well, he _had_ wanted to bring it up, so no time like the present. "Kacchan and I have been getting along really well. We're on pretty good terms now—even better than when we were kids, so... It's been nice." He smiled, a surprisingly genuine one. As disturbing and depressing as the situation was, their visits _had_ been relatively nice at times. It might be his imagination, but this world's Kacchan didn't seem as short-tempered.

Shigaraki just eyed him speculatively, clearly thinking. "Do you think the bodyguard plan is working?" he asked, and Izuku had to hide his surprise at the fact _he'd_ been the one to bring it up. He'd expected to have to say a few more lines to segue into the topic, but the fact Shigaraki did instead was even better.

"Yeah, I think so," he confirmed, nodding much more firmly. "I've mentioned it and he seems to be okay with it. He said that school was getting boring anyway, and he can't figure out how to become a hero. At least being my bodyguard might let him get some action. He doesn't want to be forced to be a villain, though," he added seriously. That had been the one detail all of them agreed on. If Shigaraki tried to force them to join in the Alliance's illicit activities beyond "protecting" Izuku, the plan would be off.

The blue-haired male didn't try to argue though, just nodding with a small grunt. "That's fine. The main goal with him is to expand your party." Relief swelled in him, and Izuku opened his mouth to respond before pausing.

"...Expand my party?" he repeated slowly, not bothering to mask his newfound wariness and skepticism. He'd spent enough time around the other male to pick up on his love for video game terminology, and already he could sense this conversation was about to take a turn that would wear at his patience.

"I've been thinking lately. I have a lot of main quests coming up soon, and I can't split my party to protect you _and_ run them all. I can't add you to my party either, you're... not the right kind of class, for this campaign." He seemed to choose his words carefully, as if trying to avoid hurting Izuku's feelings. "It's not like I think you'd drag us down. I just need classes that focus on combat, and your stats aren't concentrated in the right areas—"

"I get it," Izuku cut in. "You need people who can fight heroes, and I'm just... Quirkless." The word rolled off his tongue lamely, feeling a bit weird to say it again after so long. Even now he felt the power of One for All deep inside him, dormant inside him and waiting to be used. Shigaraki paused, glancing at him from the corner of his eyes.

"Being Quirkless isn't... _bad,_" he said after a moment. Maybe hanging around the villains so much was starting to rub off on Izuku, because he found it surprisingly hard not to roll his eyes at how awkward Shigaraki seemed. Instead he huffed quietly, offering the older male a small smile.

"You don't need to worry about my feelings, Tomura-nii," he assured Shigaraki, surprising himself with how easily the title rolled off his tongue this time. "Even if I wasn't Quirkless, I probably wouldn't want to fight heroes anyway." _At least I hope not,_ he added silently. Hard to say how things would have gone if he'd had a Quirk that the villains could actually train.

In any event Shigaraki seemed to relax a bit at the reassurance, nodding. "Yeah, you're still too caught up in Hero worship," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Don't get _how_, but whatever. Anyways, since you can't join _my_ party, you need your _own_ party. You're sixteen, you're old enough to lead one. You already got a head start on recruiting a tank and a rogue, that's two key members down."

"Huh?" Izuku looked at him blankly, and Shigaraki shot him an unimpressed look that made him want to wince. He scrounged his brain for ideas and realized, "Wait, do you mean Kacchan and Hijack?"

"No shit," Shigaraki scoffed. "And don't try to say you don't know which is which. That blond brat's too loud to be a good rogue, and can you _really_ see that stupid vigilante taking a bunch of hits on the front line?" Izuku just stared at him, not sure how to respond.

"Uh, right," he said slowly after a few seconds. This conversation had taken a weird turn, but it honestly wasn't too different from what he'd already been doing, if anything it might make it simpler. If Shigaraki expected them to work with Izuku and _protect_ him, then he wouldn't have to worry about them being dragged off to perform missions or crimes for the Alliance. "Well, I think Kacchan's ready. And Hijack might be too, we've been really bonding lately—"

"It's probably a trick," Shigaraki interrupted, and yeah, Izuku figured it wouldn't be that easy. "He's been trying to break out since day one, it's too soon for his alignment to change."

"I guess," Izuku agreed sullenly, but pushed past his disappointment. "But you think Kacchan might be ready, right? Because I mean it, he's willing to join! And I mean, if you don't trust him yet, could you at _least_ maybe remove his handcuffs please?" When Shigaraki shot him a surprised look Izuku awkwardly shrugged and quickly explained, "It's just, we're both getting really frustrated with them. They kinda gets in the way of, well, _everything_. And if his hands are free, I could take him to Hijack's room too and we can all play Mario Kart! He might be able to help convince him to—uh, join the party."

He started strong but ended it on a rather lame note, internally cringing at actually saying _party_. Shigaraki stared at him for several seconds, seeming to consider it, and then got up.

"Fine," he said, and Izuku wanted to _scream_ with joy. "Let's go get Kurogiri and let the brat out of the handcuffs. I'll be keeping an eye on him though," he added, giving Izuku a pointed look, but Izuku was so happy he didn't mind.

Finally, at long last after nearly two weeks in this world, he was making _progress_.

* * *

Sunday. Sunday seemed to be a cursed day in this world, doomed to be filled with boredom and nothing to do.

Mina had reached this conclusion as she laid on her bed staring sullenly at her ceiling, her irritation growing. Technically this was only her second Sunday in this world so it might not be an _actual_ pattern yet, but the first one had been spent totally bored out of her mind and today seemed no different. Mainly because she was basically under house arrest.

Mina had not set foot outside her apartment since returning yesterday after lunch. Kageyama had been incredibly insistent she and Kiri go straight to their apartments and never actually leave the building. They could visit each other, they could stand in the hallways, but they could not step foot outside the door or even open the windows. Not that she _would_, it was currently snowing like crazy and looked like a mini-blizzard outside her window, but it was the principle of the thing!

She heaved a giant sigh as she rolled onto her stomach, pulling out her phone. Kumiko had been rather frosty with her since Friday, only replying to her texts with short replies after confirming Mina was alive. _Yep, she's obviously still mad over me running off to save that guy,_ she thought silently as she looked at the latest one-word response to her whining about boredom.

So, Kumiko was out. Anjou was also out, because in her words she had work. Mina did not know what "work" involved, but Anjou had sounded like she was trying not to laugh and it kinda scared her. The only one _definitely_ free right now was Kiri, but she couldn't go to him. Whining to him about something as silly as being bored when he was probably freaking out about _his whole life_ being completely turned upside-down, and when it was technically her fault—

Yeah, Kiri wasn't an option.

Which left Mina with no one and nothing to distract her, and which in turn left her no choice but to _finally_ dwell on her situation.

Tomorrow would mark two full weeks since she first woke up in this crazy other world. And in those two weeks, Mina had made absolutely zero progress in figuring out how she got here or how she could get home.

Part of her had sorta just hoped it would wear off on its own, and that she'd randomly wake up back in her world. Or maybe that this was just a really detailed dream or something. Could anyone blame her? This whole situation was just insane! But at this point she felt pretty safe to assume it wouldn't wear off naturally. For better or worse, Mina seemed to be stuck here.

She had no idea what to do now. She'd _never_ heard of a Quirk like this, and even if she had, she had no idea when it could have been used! The last day she spent in her world, she'd just been in the dorms chilling with all the girls and putting off her homework until the last minute. It'd been one of those largely do-nothing days, nothing really standing out.

The biggest thing she'd done was head to the common room with Uraraka, squeal because Kouda had brought down his pet rabbit, beg Midoriya who was holding it to give her a turn until he finally carefully handed the fluffy bunny over, and then quickly retreat when Iida invited them all for some surprise training. Hey, she'd already done a bunch of sparring with Uraraka the day before and was _still_ sore! That girl knew how to throw a punch!

No, if anyone got hit with a weird world-swapping Quirk, it'd have to be the _other_ Mina. Except some voice in the back of her head said _nope, nothing weird about her day, she was just chilling and stressing over homework_. So Mina still felt at a total loss as to how the heck this happened, and even less sure of where to go now.

Especially since she'd kinda gotten herself on sudden house arrest.

Now if she wanted to do something, she just couldn't. She couldn't go out and try to explore the world in search of answers. She couldn't start looking for any more of her classmates besides Uraraka—actually, strike that, she couldn't even look for Uraraka. At this point she had convinced herself that Infinity Girl was, in fact, her classmate from HER world and was also in this mess.

She whined miserably as she opened up her Alien Queen Pink profile, opening up the chat with Infinity_Girl_8. Still no new messages since that last one, making her whimper. On a whim she started typing, even though she knew the other girl probably wouldn't respond anytime soon.

'_Hey I know you're probably still on your big adventure, but whenever you finally see this say something even if its like 2 in the morning. I'm totes free to talk & I think im kinda done with school so im super BORED and i miss you. Hope ur safe wherever u are! 333_'

She hit send and flopped onto her back, once again left with nothing to do.

Then her phone dinged with a notification and she bolted upright. _Holy shit, did Uraraka respond!?_ She snatched up her phone and her excitement instantly fizzled when she saw she'd just gotten a text from Kageyama. Darn. Mina soon perked right back up when she read it though, her curiosity officially piqued.

'_Heads up, some people are coming in ~10 to ask questions. Might wanna clean up your place if it's messy._'

Someone was coming to ask questions? Weird, she thought they'd done all the questioning yesterday, but who cared? At least she wouldn't be bored. She paused as she reread the last sentence though, turning to survey her room. At present, it could probably be best described as "_complete and total disaster zone_". Clothes were strewn everywhere, and she'd also left some other stuff.

Good thing she had another room.

To that end she went to the main room of the apartment and very deliberately closed the bedroom door. The rest of her apartment was _also_ a bit of a disaster zone from takeout boxes and dirty dishes, so she quickly started sweeping everything off the counters and into the sink or trash. It took a bit of work, but she managed to make it look at least good enough for police officers.

Just in time too, because there was a knock on her door right as she tied up the last trash bag. She quickly tossed it in her bedroom—she'd throw it out later—and went to open the door. "Hey!" she greeted, and paused in surprise at the people outside. Kageyama was there of course, but next to him was an incredibly plain man in a trench coat and a woman with long blue hair and red glasses. Something about both of them was kinda familiar.

"Hello, Ashido," the plain guy greeted with a smile. "I'm Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, it's nice to meet you."

* * *

**A while ago I asked what everyone thought Izuku's plan is. No one predicted he didn't really HAVE a plan. Beyond "get them out of their cells/rooms" they're just making everything up as they go (which is honestly probably for the best, given how rapidly things can and WILL change).**

**More importantly, ****Izuku and Shigaraki bond! They haven't spent much time together in this AU, ******partially** because they've both been busy with other things, so it was nice to show off a bit more of their dynamic. Their bond is a bit awkward and stilted at times, since they don't have too many overlapping interests, but I think this shows how much they care about each other. Also, I don't think anyone's surprised at Tsukauchi showing up to Mina.**

**Last thing before I go: I'll be updating again later this week!**

**I don't know what day yet, but the world's kind of on lockdown from coronavirus right now, so sticking to the once-a-week schedule seems like a bit much. (Though I guess it MIGHT help keep track of the current day of the week at least. I've had at least one friend miss an online lecture because she lost track of what day it was.****) I don't know how you're all holding up, but I hope everyone reading this is doing okay. And if not, I hope having an extra chapter later this week will make your day a little brighter! Besides, ****the next chapter has a scene I've been waiting to show for a while, and I really can't wait to see everyone's reactions to it...**

**Question for next time: how do you think Izuku and Tomura became "brothers"? (There IS a story to it beyond how Izuku came to live with the Alliance. You know Shigaraki wouldn't just accept a random kid he barely knows as his new little brother.)**

**(One last note: last time, I said everyone's been seen except Hagakure and Aoyama. This was wrong. Iida hasn't physically appeared yet, beyond a reference to him being an online student in Jirou's POV. Obviously he still lives at home, but someone also pointed out Shouji has not appeared or been referenced yet, which... yeah, much bigger thing to forget. So if you've got any speculation on Shouji, feel free to share it!)**


	28. Chapter 28: Interview with High Schooler

Chapter 28

.::Interview with a High Schooler::.

"Sorry again for the short notice."

"It's cool, I was really bored anyway! Like, _really_ bored." Ashido grinned as Naomasa and the others removed their shoes, hands entwined behind her back while she rocked on her heels. "So, like, where do we do this? Are we all just gonna sit on the couch?"

"Would the kitchen table work?" Naomasa asked, and she bobbed her head.

"Yeah, sure!" Ashido beamed as she bounced over to the table, Naomasa following with a sedate smile of his own. The table wasn't that big, it only had enough space for two chairs. Amusingly it still had a bowl and a spoon at one spot, which Ashido quickly swept up and carried to the kitchen with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, guess I missed that!"

"It's no problem," he assured her, sitting down with a smile. His first impressions of Ashido Mina matched the loose profile Lady of the Night had compiled: cheerful, energetic and probably a good kid. She overall felt like a pretty average teenage girl, a breath of fresh air from the usual witnesses and suspects he usually spoke to. "I know we showed up pretty suddenly, so I didn't expect your apartment to be spotless. My schedule's a bit hectic, so it's hard to plan ahead sometimes."

"Detectives have it hard, huh?" she asked, plopping into the chair across from him. Her gaze flitted to Kageyama and Kayama behind him. "Um, there aren't enough chairs for you guys, though."

"We're fine standing," Kayama assured her with a smile.

"I've been sitting for _hours_," Kageyama added, folding his arms behind his head. "Standing is way better."

"Okay, if you say so." Ashido nodded, but she looked again at Kayama, her eyes squinting in concentration. "What's your name again?"

"I'm Suimin Sayo, but you can call me Suimin-sensei, if you want," Kayama replied without missing a beat, flashing a cheerful smile. _Lie,_ Naomasa's mind pinged, making him suppress an amused smile. _So that's how she's planning to play this, huh._ They hadn't fully discussed the plan before coming in, but it seemed she'd be using her civilian cover instead of admitting to being Midnight this time.

Ashido hummed, leaning forward with a frown as she continued to squint at her. "Have we met? I feel like you're _really_ familiar."

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence," Kayama replied lightly. "I'm sure I'd remember meeting someone as bright and colorful as you." Her words seemed to assuage some of Ashido's curiosity, shooting her one last slightly suspicious look before sinking back into her chair. Her attention returned to Naomasa as he pulled out a small tape recorder and held it up.

"We'd like to record this interview, is that okay with you?" Ashido looked at the device for a second before shrugging.

"Sure, I guess?" she agreed, sounding faintly confused. Naomasa smiled as he placed it on the table and hit the record function while she continued. "But didn't you guys, like, already get all my statements about that guy back on Friday? Because I can't think of anything else I didn't already say."

"And I'm sure you did a fine job. This interview is about another matter, though." He didn't miss the way she stiffened slightly, a glimmer of suspicion visible in her eyes as he leaned forward. "Do you use the name 'Alien_Queen_Pink' on FacePage?"

The second the name left his mouth her face lit up with recognition, half-rising from her chair with a look of shock. "How'd you find out!? Isn't FacePage supposed to be like, super-secure or something? _Did you hack my phone?_" The questions didn't carry a note of accusation, instead sounding almost like a curious if bewildered child, though the last one had a distinct note of suspicion.

Naomasa felt his mouth tick into another smile while Kageyama and Kayama suppressed snorts behind him. "No, we just happened to get lucky," he told her. "I can't explain _how_ because it involves sensitive information, but us connecting the account to you is a one-in-a-million chance." Ashido didn't seem _completely_ convinced, but her suspicious squint subsided as she sat back down.

"Okay, I'll believe you for now," she said, much to his amusement. He had to admit, it was refreshing to have such an expressive interview subject. Naomasa's ability to detect lies had made him indispensable for interviews and interrogations, especially those known for silver tongues and convincing lies. If he wasn't busy investigating a case on his own, he could almost always count on another precinct or even Pro Heroes asking him to handle questioning suspects and witnesses.

All in all, it left him with even less free time than detectives usually had. Today _should_ have been his day off, but the Uraraka case had been too urgent and critical to even consider refusing. They still had absolutely no leads on her whereabouts or even what caused her to disappear. Given her family's status _and_ the fact she'd encountered Shigaraki shortly before going missing, the pressure to find her was justified.

At least Ashido seemed like she'd be easy to talk to. Not even five minutes in, and she was already more expressive than the subjects of his last ten interviews combined. They could probably see through her lies even without the aid of his Quirk.

Still, the case was too critical to risk taking any chances. Every second Uraraka remained missing was another second closer to finding a body instead of a teenage girl. So he slid into a more professional demeanor, not too stern but still indicating the time for small talk had ended. Ashido seemed to pick up on the shift in his expression, sitting a bit straighter and looking tense as she met his gaze.

"We're currently investigating a missing person case," he explained. "We got access to their FacePage account, and found a conversation with your account."

Ashido visibly perked up as he spoke, an almost excited gasp slipping out. "So Infinity Girl really DID run away?" she blurted, and he could sense the two heroes' attention sharpen behind him. The fact Ashido had identified her with just that information stood out enough, but the conversation log he'd read during the car ride to Kamino hadn't said anything about running away.

"That remains to be determined," he replied neutrally. He glanced back to nod at Kayama and she opened her bag, producing a manila folder with printouts of the conversation history. Ashido craned her neck curiously as the heroine spread them across the table, fanning them to make their contents more easily visible. "These are printouts of the chat history between your accounts. Can you confirm this is complete?"

The teen was silent for a few seconds as she skimmed over them. "Yeah, it doesn't look like anything's missing to me," she confirmed. "I mean, I didn't actually read _all_ of it, but it looks like it's all there."

"We don't need you to read everything," Naomasa assured her. "I just want to make sure there wasn't anything deleted, particularly after the last one. Did you speak to her in any other ways through FacePage, such as comments or group chats?"

"Nope."

"Did you communicate on anything other than FacePage? Phone calls?"

"Nuh-uh. We only used the messenger on FacePage." His Quirk didn't pick up on any lies, so he moved on.

"Alright. So to double-check, did Infinity Girl ever tell you her name?"

"Nope."

"Did you know her real name?"

This time she paused, seeming to think it over with a tiny frown. "No," she finally said, and Naomasa felt mildly surprised when his Quirk didn't register it as a lie. Silences like that usually indicated _something_, especially with such a straightforward question.

The others seemed to be thinking the same thing, because when he didn't give the predetermined signal for lies Kayama spoke up. "Do you think you two might have met in real life?" she asked, and _ah, that might explain it_. The way Ashido had paused seemed to suggest she was remembering _something_ at least, they may have met without getting names.

Once again Ashido paused, frowning as she mulled over her answer. Unknown to them, she was debating how to answer because she was ninety-nine percent sure it was _her_ Uraraka, but she still wasn't totally, _completely_ sure. And even then, they hadn't actually _met_ outside of FacePage. Had other-Mina met other-Uraraka? _Probably not,_ some subconscious voice supplied, which she decided was good enough for now.

"I don't think so," she said.

And once again, Naomasa detected no lie.

Despite having no reaction, the fact she paused _twice_ like that now suggested to him that she knew _something_. The pauses had felt meaningful, Ashido clearly thinking hard based on how her face had scrunched up. It felt like he was missing _something_, but he didn't know what. All he could do was push onwards.

"In that case, can you answer some questions about your FacePage account?" he asked, and she perked up and bobbed her head eagerly.

"Yeah, totally! Whaddaya wanna know?"

"Why did you decide to make the 'Alien_Queen_Pink' profile?"

"I was bored and lonely. All my friends were busy and I didn't have anything better to do." _Lie,_ his brain whispered, and he inclined his head slightly to the left as he rubbed his chin, the two heroes zeroing in on the predetermined signal that he'd detected a lie.

"Just bored and lonely?" he pressed, and she nodded. "And you really had nothing better to do?" Ashido gave a slight flinch at that, squirming slightly in her chair.

"Okay, I... _might_ have had a science project due the next day," she admitted reluctantly, and then added more meekly, "I think." This didn't register as a lie.

"You think?" Kageyama asked, but before she could respond he snorted. "Oh, _wow_. Okay, yeah, she's clear, she just sucks at school."

Naomasa twisted in his seat to offer the amused hero an unimpressed look, while Ashido uttered a quiet, "_Hey?_" that wavered between confusion and offense. "Oracle, please allow _me_ to handle to handle the questions," he asked, and the teal-haired man held up his hands with an amused smirk.

"Sorry, I'll be quiet," he said, but he had a glint of mischief in his eyes and Naomasa bit back a sigh. He didn't doubt the accuracy of Kageyama's statement, in fact he considered the man a better interrogator than himself.

Unfortunately, Kageyama's Quirk didn't translate well to outside viewing though. It worked fine when questioning villains on the field and gathering information to decide how to act, but when it came to formal interviews with witnesses or suspects that were part of an official investigation, they had only his word. For rather obvious reasons, that made it less than suitable for documentation purposes.

When he turned around Ashido was still looking at Kageyama with obvious confusion, still clearly stuck on if she should be offended by his statement or not. "Where did the name Alien Queen Pink come from?" he asked to get her attention back, and it worked. Ashido _beamed_ at the question, her face breaking into a bright grin as she practically jumped out of her seat.

"Alien Queen was my original idea for my hero name!" she said excitedly. "But then I got told it was too scary, so I changed it to Pinkie instead. 'Cause, you know, I'm pink!" She gestured to herself with a grin, and Naomasa had to smile at her enthusiasm.

"Whoever told you that was right," Kayama said behind him, flashing a smile of her own. "Alien Queen sounds like a villain's name—and it's probably trademarked, too." Something about her words seemed to jar Ashido, because she did a double-take at the heroine and then her jaw dropped.

"Wait—are you _Midnight!?_" Naomasa felt his poker face slip while Kayama's face went slack with undisguised shock. Next to her Kageyama just quietly chuckled and shook his head. As the stunned silence continued Ashido slapped her hands on the table and jumped up from her seat, staring at her wide-eyed. "Oh my gosh, it totally _is_ you, isn't it!? Why're you calling yourself Suimin? What happened to your costume?"

At that Kayama regained her composure and _grinned_, throwing her head back with a laugh. "Oh my, I haven't been recognized by a civilian in _years_," she chuckled. She straightened herself but now placed a hand on her hip as it jutted to the side, her smile and pose much closer to the dominatrix persona she had been force to largely abandon years ago. "I had to hang up my whip when the world started going topsy-turvy, hun. Midnight's R-18-only appeal was just _too_ popular. I didn't need villains tracking me down outside of work."

Her response made Ashido's excitement ebb, her expression growing somber as she slowly sank back into her chair. "Oh, yeah, I guess being a hero _is_ way more dangerous now, huh," she muttered, and _damn_ if she didn't look like a kicked puppy.

"Don't be too sad, sweetie," Kayama purred, her smile softening into something more gentle and reassuring. "I still do hero work, I just stay behind the scenes now." Her smile turned sly then, and she raised a hand to her mouth almost conspiratorially. "This is a secret, but my most recent job was being the bodyguard for a teenage girl from a rather influential family."

"Really?" Ashido asked, perking up a bit, and then gasped as realization visibly dawned on her. "Wait—_Infinity Girl_!?"

"Yep," Kayama confirmed with a wink. "You can't tell anyone about this obviously, but I've been her personal guard and tutor for the last two years. I never told her who I _actually_ was, safety and all that, but we became very close. Like sisters, even!" Her smile faded then, her expression becoming grim as she continued, "Which makes her disappearance all the stranger."

Ashido's own face became somber again at the tone shift, frowning as Kayama continued. "I can't disclose many details about her or the case itself to you, but she vanished from her room. As it stands, we have yet to determine if she was kidnapped, or if she ran away—and if so, _why_." She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "When Tsukauchi first started the interview, you asked if she ran away. I've read through that message log many times, but she never made any remarks about it. So why did you think that?"

As a professional, Naomasa found himself silently applauding Kayama's approach as he turned back to Ashido. She'd used the teenage girl's unexpected recognition to help steer questioning the way she wanted, giving Ashido just enough information to showcase her concern and command the teen's sympathy. It obviously worked, as Ashido had a heavy frown full of concern.

"I guess I just kinda assumed, kinda," she muttered awkwardly as she shifted in her seat. "I mean, from what we talked about, she was homeschooled all the time and didn't have any friends, so she already sounded lonely. And, uh, um..." She trailed off with a frown, her face scrunching up in concentration before she groaned. "Okay, so Anjou said it sounded like she'd want to run away, and I can't remember everything she said, but she was _really_ convincing so I think she's probably right!"

The three adults instantly zeroed in on the new name. "Anjou?" Kayama repeated, and Ashido nodded.

"Yeah, my friend from school. She looked at the conversation too, and like I said, she was _really_ convincing."

"How many people know about your relationship with Infinity Girl?" Naomasa asked, and only years of practice kept the urgency from his voice. They knew other people likely knew about her texting someone because of the final string of messages between the two, but they hadn't realized (or rather, they'd _hoped_) that someone might have read it.

"Just Anjou, Kumiko and Kiri," she replied. "I was really freaked out by that last message from her, so we talked a lot. Kumiko said her dad might've taken her phone, but that's when Anjou said it sounded like she was running away. Then Kiri was kinda wondering if she was catfishing me and was actually an adult or something, but Anjou said she wasn't, and—_hey_! I just realized, you guys totally prove she totally IS a teenage girl! HA!"

She beamed triumphantly at the realization. Under other circumstances Naomasa would have been amused by her smugness, but right now he was more focused on how much these other three knew. "Kiri would be Kirishima Eijirou, right?" Kageyama asked, and Ashido bobbed her head.

"Yeah, totally! Kiri's the manliest guy around!" _Lie_, Naomasa's Quirk alerted him, and this time he _did_ let himself smile because it was such a trivial thing.

"Is he?" he teased, unable to help himself, and Ashido's smile became static.

"...Okay, he's kinda wimpy," she admitted sheepishly, before adding more energetically, "But we're working on it! By the time I'm through with him he's totally going to be the manliest man ever!"

Kageyama snickered under his breath while Naomasa decided to steer the questioning back on track. "Can you tell us their full names?"

"Right! Kirameki Kumiko and Anjou—" She stopped, her eyebrows furrowing as she muttered, "Anjou, uh... I don't actually know her first name."

"You don't know her full name?" Kayama asked in surprise. "Aren't you two friends?" Ashido just shrugged, the picture of sheepish as she awkwardly laughed.

"No, we're totally friends! Probably. I think." That sounded oddly uncertain. "She's really deadpan and I think she'd say if she didn't like me, so I'm totally assuming we are!" Okay, that explained the uncertainty a bit. "But yeah, her first name's never come up and we don't have homeroom together so I never hear it on roll call. I never really thought about it until now."

"It's cool," Kageyama said. "I've got the school's register, so we can look it up later." The casual remark earned a curious glance from Ashido, and then her face morphed into horror.

"Wait—you don't think they did anything, do you?" she gasped, and her expression quickly hardened as she slammed her hands on the table. "They totally didn't! I've known Kumiko since elementary school and she would never hurt another person! And Anjou—" She paused again, a slightly confused frown marring her face before she vigorously shook her head and slammed the table again. "She gave me her pudding at lunch every day! She's not a bad person either!"

In all his years of interviewing witnesses and suspects, that had to be one of the most amusing character defense statements Naomasa had ever heard. Evidently Kageyama agreed because he covered his mouth with a snort, making Ashido glare at him harder. "I'm sure they're good people," Naomasa assured her before she could go off on him. "We just need to follow up on every possible lead. Do you think there's a chance any of them would have known Infinity Girl?"

"Absolutely not," Ashido replied firmly, turning that indignant frown towards him. "Kumiko, Kiri and I went to school together so there's no way they'd know her. And I don't know where Anjou went to school or where she lived before, but she'd totally tell me if she knew her!"

Her tone veered towards defensive again, and Naomasa quickly went to reassure her. "Like I said, this is just a formality," he said, hoping that would calm her. It didn't seem to satisfy Kayama though, as the heroine stepped forward with a frown.

"Ashido, I can't disclose why, but we have reason to suspect she's in serious danger," she said seriously. "This applies whether she's been kidnapped _and_ if she ran away. I know we might seem overly harsh right now, but we can't take any chances. Even the littlest detail could be the difference between _life and death_." The gravity of her words seemed to sink into the teenage girl, her frown growing and outright _wincing_ at the last part before her shoulders slumped.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, looking down. "I really don't know anything. I'm really worried too. But she has to be fine!" she added, looking up with a renewed fire in her eye. "She's Infinity Girl! The girl who can throw baseballs that never return! And if anyone tries to hurt her, I bet she can just punch them and make them back down no problem!"

Her eyes blazed with confidence, fully believing her online friend to be capable of protecting and fending for herself. Naomasa cracked a small smile at that, though one part stood out. "What was that about her throwing a baseball?" he asked, and Ashido paused.

"Oh, uh, one of my classmates threw a baseball with her Quirk and it just kept going up and up," she explained with a sheepish laugh. "We all called her Infinity Girl for a while after that, so... yeah. Whenever I hear the name Infinity Girl, I just think of that. I guess that might not be true for _this_ Infinity Girl though."

"Ah, I see." Naomasa nodded in understanding. He briefly considered asking for more information on this classmate but quickly dismissed the idea. Uraraka and Ashido had never attended the same school, and since his Quirk hadn't detected a lie when she said "classmate" she must be remembering a different girl. It wouldn't be relevant to their investigation.

With that settled he began gathering all the printouts and pushing them back into the folder. "Thank you. In any case, I think that will be a good stopping point for now." Ashido glanced at him before all but collapsing into her chair with a drawn-out groan.

"Oh good, I feel kinda drained now."

"You don't have any other questions?" Kageyama asked curiously, and Naomasa shook his head.

"Not at the moment, no." They'd gotten a decent amount of information, and some potential new leads. It was clear to him Ashido had nothing else she could offer right now. Currently, he was more interested in meeting up with this Anjou and getting some more testimony on her about why she thought Uraraka might wish to run away.

Before he could voice this out loud Kageyama smirked and nodded. "Ah, I see. Sounds like a good move."

"Huh? What move?" Ashido was the picture of confusion, but Kageyama just smirked at her while Naomasa suppressed a tired sigh. He doubted he'd ever get used to that pseudo-mind-reading bit, it tended to leave him feeling frustrated and out of the loop even when he knew _exactly_ what the other man was responding to, but he couldn't argue that it saved time.

For now he picked up the tape recorder and turned to face the two heroes before turning it off. "Do either of you have any other questions?"

"None relevant to the investigation," Kayama responded with a fluid shrug, side-eying Ashido with a smirk as she added, "I _do_ wonder how you recognized me though. I don't think you were in my target demographic when I retired."

Turns out that Ashido's natural pink hue made her blush an even brighter red. "What? H-hold on, I don't look at that kinda stuff!" Kayama just laughed as the girl made a strangled noise of exasperation, while Kageyama snickered.

"Hey, Ashido," he started, and paused as she turned sullen eyes his way. His head cocked to the side, and his smile grew a little wider. "Do you have a crush on anyone?"

The resulting squawk was emphasized by a spoon being thrown at his face, which he easily dodged by tipping his head slightly to the side. "What does that have to do with anything!?" she demanded, her cheeks even brighter.

"Nothing," he sang, and laughed as he strolled to the door. "You're a fun kid, Ashido. I hope you make it as a hero." The last remark seemed to catch her off-guard, and then her face lit up with the brightest smile yet.

"Absolutely!"

Two minutes later the trio left her apartment, their questioning done for today. "Does anyone else feel like we're missing something?" Kayama asked as they walked down the hall.

"Absolutely," Kageyama agreed blithely ahead of them.

"I'd almost question if my Quirk was malfunctioning if I hadn't caught her lie about the science project," Naomasa commented with a sigh. "It feels like she must know _something_ more than she said, but I can't figure it out right now. For now though, I want to go visit this 'Anjou' she mentioned and ask about the remarks about Uraraka running away."

Kayama perked up at that. "Oh, is that what Kageyama responded to towards the end?" she asked.

"Yep," the hero answered in Naomasa's stead. "I figured it'd be better not to let Tsukauchi actually say it in front of her though. She was pretty defensive about her friends."

"Ah, good call." Kayama made a sound of understanding, while Naomasa glanced at the teal-haired man thoughtfully.

"Speaking of responses," he said slowly, "what was the original question you planned to ask her before the crush?" Kageyama hummed, glancing over his shoulder with a smirk.

"Nothing, I just wanted to see how she'd react," he replied, and Naomasa's eyes narrowed as the other turned forward. _Lie._ He didn't call him out though, not yet at least. Kageyama knew _exactly_ how Tsukauchi's Quirk worked, so he wouldn't blatantly lie about something important. Surely if he'd learned something relevant, he would tell them.

For now, Naomasa just had to believe that.

* * *

Meanwhile miles away from Kamino, a single man laid in the center of a cell, arms bound behind his back and a chain connecting his metal collar to the ground. He didn't feel sore or tired today, his arms mostly numb right now. He didn't know how long he'd been here anymore, the passage of time impossible to track without a clock or window. The only light he had was a dim bulb hanging from the ceiling, the cheap kind that gave a constant low buzz that he'd long since learned to ignore.

Footsteps sounded in the hall outside, heavy boots that echoed loudly on tile floor, making his gaze flicker to the door. The steps drew closer and closer before ultimately passing by, a shadow briefly visible in the light under the door before vanishing. As they faded away he let out a sigh, curling into a ball and closing his eyes. Another false alarm.

Perhaps he should be glad no one was coming to check on him, since for so long he associated visits with pain. The beatings had mostly stopped a while ago though, and they'd stopped altogether after the last one ended up cracking a rib. At least they were nice enough to drug him for the first few days so breathing wouldn't hurt so bad, though he suspected that was mainly to make sure he'd stay still so it wouldn't worsen.

As far as he could tell it had healed for the most part by now, the area still a bit sore but he no longer found it painful to take deep breaths. For now, he just felt bored out of his mind. Months of being locked in an empty room did that, and even the constant anxiety and dread which had haunted him at the start had slowly waned with time to nothing more than a quiet ever-present hum in the back of his mind.

More footsteps approached, just as heavy as the last, but this time they stopped by the door, followed by the familiar clank of a metal bar being lifted. He huffed a quiet sigh as he shifted to sit on his knees, listening to the metallic clatter of a key turning in the lock. The door pulled open with a heavy groan, a large man stepping inside.

"Food," he grunted, dropping a plate with two onigiri and a water bottle to the ground as he circled around the bound prisoner. "You know the drill, one hand only. Any wrong moves and you're dead meat." The leather binder securing his arms in place loosened as the man spoke, allowing him to pull his right arm free, and he silently picked up a rice ball.

The man hovered behind him the entire time he ate, making no moves to assist even as he had to hold the water bottle between his knees to unscrew the cap and drink. After finishing the meager meal the man roughly jerked him to his feet and dragged him towards the door connecting to a small bathroom, still leaving only one hand free to do his business. The door remained open the entire two minutes in there, the man staring him down the whole time, but any shame at being watched had faded long ago.

After he'd washed his hand and dried it off the man roughly grabbed his wrist and jerked it back behind his back, his grip harsh enough to make him wince. He bit down on his lip and remained still as the binder wrapped around his arms once more, leaving them folded behind his back. His elbows still protested the position but he'd become used to that ache by now.

Once the binder was secure he received a kick to the back of his leg that sent him toppling to his knees with a quiet grunt. The man scooped up the bottle and empty plate as he strode towards the door. "See you tomorrow, Eraserhead," he said, and slammed the door with a loud wham that made the light flicker for a few seconds before steadying.

Aizawa Shouta just stared at the wall as he listened to the lock turn and the bar get returned to its place on the door, and let his eyes slide shut.

* * *

**I like how everyone thought Mina would tell them everything.**

**I also like how everyone worried Aizawa was dead.**

**Question for next time: what do you think will happen to Aizawa?**


	29. Chapter 29: Reasons to Hate Mondays

Chapter 29

.::Reasons to Hate Mondays::.

Monday morning found Denki curled up in bed miserable and in _pain_. One thing they had _grossly_ taken for granted at UA was access to Recovery Girl. This oversight became very clear after a variety of incidents, including: getting thrown in the air by the weirdo riding some weird makeshift plow in a grocery store; getting almost tossed into a building by a guy with six arms, and instead hitting a bunch of _metal_ trash cans; and then the mugger who body-checked him into the pavement.

All of that had happened in the span of _three hours_, after which they called it quits because he was WAY too sore and battered to continue. Had they not been so close to his apartment last night when their patrol ended, he doubted he would've made it back before collapsing. He'd hoped going to sleep would help, but no. It just made him feel even _more_ sore somehow. His body felt like one giant bruise.

Their only saving grace was that he hadn't actually _broken_ anything, so he was just sore and in pain. Calling out from school had been a no-brainer, his body too sore to do anything right now. Hatsume had graciously agreed to stay home from school to work on adding extra padding to their costumes, but that did little to help his aching bruises _now_.

At least they had gotten a lot of attention. Adding the 1-A to their jackets had been a stroke of genius on Jirou's part, giving them a catchy name to trend on social media. The post on Satou's Instagram in particular had exploded, and now less than twenty-four hours later he could find plenty of posts about the 1-A Vigilantes. Between that and their costumes' resemblance to their _actual_ hero costumes, anyone from their class should recognize them.

However, despite that he had a lot of doubts right now. They had seen _Satou_ of all people, and even though Denki made eye contact with him—_even though he said the guy's name like an absolute idiot_—he hadn't recognized them. It wasn't just a moment of Satou being confused and suspicious. It hadn't been intentional but their vigilante costumes strongly resembled their actual hero costumes, anyone from Class 1-A would recognize them. If Satou didn't make the connection then, he simply wasn't _their_ Satou. With Yaomomo, that made three classmates that they'd found who didn't seem to be from their world.

Four if you counted Mineta. They hadn't talked or anything, but Denki had been keeping an eye on his FacePage profile since it was the only one he could find so far. Earlier today he'd posted about saving a girl from falling to her death when a villain smashed into their train and it got derailed. It wasn't even a brag, it was literally "_ohmygosh a villain smashed the train and knocked it sideways and we almost fell! I saved this one girl but IT WAS SO SCARY! WAY TOO CLOSE! #onlineschooltime_"

Denki snorted softly at the hashtag, a feeble, bitter smile curling on his lips. When he pressed it he found a slew of other posts using it. Part of him idly debated using it today, but after scrolling through the other posts with it, everyone seemed to be using it for extreme cases where they missed weeks or even _months_. Almost all of them recounted rising villain activity in the area, or concerns of missing person cases making them paranoid, or even just one bad morning like Mineta.

These weren't kids who didn't feel like going into class that day for one reason or another. These were kids scared for their _lives_.

The thought made him clench his teeth, gripping his phone tighter as he squeezed his eyes shut. _I want to go home._

He shoved the thought away as he opened his eyes, switching out of the depressing hashtag results to another tab showing all the posts with the 1-A Vigilantes. Looking at them made something inside himself settle, the ball of unease unfurling just a bit to be replaced by determination. Sitting around feeling sorry for himself wouldn't do anything right now. He needed to do _something_, and his next move was obvious enough.

* * *

Kyouka almost felt like she was in Bizarro World today—well, even more than usual, anyway. She kept her head low as she walked down the street, her earphone jacks plugged into the noise-canceling headphones hidden under her coat's hood, though she didn't actually turn them on. This time she wasn't wearing her vigilante costume, but her winter coat and school uniform.

Today for the first time since arriving in this crazy world, Kyouka would be going to school.

She wouldn't be actually _attending_ the classes, thankfully, but she had to go to the building. One of her classes had a major test today that required all students be physically present to take, even online-only students. Kyouka didn't feel too worried about the test itself, this school's curriculum was tough but not as tough as UA. It was everything else that worried her.

Obviously as someone from another world, she lacked any memory of the school and teachers there. The latter had been partially resolved with Hatsume's help, as they got her to help put together and label a set of photos of every teacher for Kaminari's reference. Kyouka had studied it intensively herself after her homeroom teacher told her about the test, and she could only hope it would be good enough.

At least she wouldn't have to worry about getting lost. As the school came into sight she spotted someone waiting at the gates, a man in a doctor's coat with a dog head. She recognized him from the photos as Kirihito-sensei, the school doctor. "Jirou-san, I presume?" he asked once she got close enough.

"Yeah," she replied with a nod, and pushed back her hood so he could see her face more clearly. His eyes zeroed in on her headphones instantly.

"Still sensitive?"

"A bit." And it was actually true today, her hearing _was_ a bit more sensitive than usual, though not as bad as she claimed. It happened sometimes, especially after days where she'd used her Quirk a lot. Those days had been less and less since starting at UA, but she hadn't really used it much since coming to this dimension. It hadn't surprised her much given how eventful yesterday's patrol had been. "It's getting better, but sensory overload's still a bitch."

"I see." Kirihito-sensei nodded, turning to the door. "Well, luckily everyone's in second period now, so the halls should be quiet. Come on, let's go." Kyouka nodded, following him inside and silently grateful she didn't need to worry about having to navigate the building alone. The school had scheduled it so that the online students would arrive at ten o'clock after second period began, to make it easier to record their arrivals. To that end they'd also stationed faculty at the gates to wait for each student and escort them inside, and even as they walked inside she saw another teacher go to take Kirihito's place.

Kirihito led her to an office area near the entrance, gently nudging her towards a waiting room before heading back to the entrance. Two other students already sat in the armchairs, glancing at her briefly before looking back at their phones. Kyouka didn't recognize either of them, and since they didn't address her she remained quiet as she sat in an empty chair. She took out her own phone and opened the newsfeed, idly wondering if they were even in the same class.

According to her homeroom teacher, the school scheduled multiple tests on the same day to try to host as many online students as possible regardless of class and year. They'd wait in the office until all of the online students had arrived, at which point they'd be escorted to a secure classroom for the tests. If someone had tests in multiple classes, they'd be given the tests in a random order, getting the next one whenever they finished the first. Students could leave once they finished all their tests.

The exact specifics didn't matter to Kyouka. What _did_ matter was that she and Iida Tenya were in the same class, which meant this would be her best opportunity to meet him.

The thought made her swallow harshly. So far they'd met a total of three people from Class 1-A, none of whom remembered them. Kyouka's leading theory was still that the phenomenon only impacted the students on the third floor of the dorms, meaning others impacted by it would be Kouda, Ojiro, Hagakure, and Iida. After seeing Satou yesterday who lived on the fifth floor, it only seemed to strengthen her case.

...Well, that or the Quirk had been used on _this_ side. If that turned out to be the case, they'd need to find a new approach. Iida's reaction would determine it once and for all.

As the minutes ticked on more students started to trickle in one by one, her gaze flicking to the door each time it opened. Most of them she didn't know, but surprisingly she _did_ recognize a couple from other classes at UA. She didn't know their names or anything, but she remembered one girl from Class 1-C's haunted house, and another guy who tended to be really loud and obnoxious at lunchtime.

When that guy raised his voice while talking to two other kids they slapped his head with a harsh shush, shooting Kyouka a pointed look as they did. He grimaced and mouthed a "sorry" at her, and at that point it occurred to her the teachers had likely informed the other students of her condition. That was... surprisingly nice, actually. Unexpected but nice.

Almost immediately after that the door opened again, and when she glanced over her heart almost stopped as she finally saw Iida. He looked so similar to the Iida she knew, with that same stern expression and his hair neatly combed to one side. The similarities ended there though, as the blue Munakata uniform looked weirdly out of place when she was so used to him in UA's gray blazer and green slacks. Even his glasses were different from her Iida, still rectangular but the frames using a different kind of metal.

He glanced around the room and zeroed in on her almost instantly, heading straight for her. Kyouka silently watched him as sat in the empty chair next to her with an increasingly erratic heartbeat. The fact he'd approached her so purposefully made it clear he wanted to talk to her, and since they didn't seem to be friends (at the very least, he wasn't a contact in her phone), it made her think he really _was_ her Iida.

To her surprise, rather than talk he pulled out his phone, typing out something before turning the screen to her. '_Good morning Jirou. Kirihito-sensei says your hearing is still sensitive?_'

She read the message in mild surprise before nodding, opening a memo app on her own phone to type her reply. '_Yeah, a bit. Thanks for typing instead of talking. You can get loud. No offense._' Back home Iida had a tendency to trigger her sensitive hearing even on good days. She might have exaggerated her sensitivity in this world, but today he'd probably trigger it, especially sitting right next to her like this.

He gave a business-like nod and typed his response. '_None taken. I am aware my volume can be off-putting to some, and my main priority is the safety and comfort of my classmates._' He didn't smile but he had an air of pride to him, so familiar it made her mouth tug into a small smile of her own.

'_Thanks Class Rep. You rock._' She showed him the response, and Iida's eyes narrowed as he typed a response before showing her.

'_Thank you for the compliment. However, I must correct you that I am not the class representative. Online students are automatically exempted from student government positions._'

It took everything to keep up her poker face as she read it, her smile falling as her stomach sank. _No, this doesn't prove he doesn't remember UA yet,_ she reminded herself. Iida's response was a _correction_, and honestly she had a feeling her Iida would make that correction even in this situation. That, or maybe he just didn't know yet that she was from their world and didn't want to show his hand.

She nodded, mind racing as she started typing her response. '_Yeah, guess not. You give off the vibe though._' She needed to say something that would be enough of a clue, without outright asking if he was her Iida or believed in multiverse theory. '_You with Yaomomo as VP would be the ultimate team._'

Kyouka held her breath as she showed him the phone, studying his face for any reaction. She _had_ to confirm Iida's status before they left to take the tests; once they left this room, they might not get a chance to talk again. There wouldn't be any breaks, and once students finished their tests they could leave right away. She had no idea how many more students would be arriving, but given a total of eight had already arrived, the next one could very well be the last.

Iida's mouth thinned as he turned to his phone, the minute shift in his expression giving her hope. Then he turned the phone to her, and her heart sank.

'_Thank you for the compliment. Speaking of Yaoyorozu, she has been very worried about you. She says you've been ignoring her calls?_'

_Dammit Iida, that still doesn't tell me if you actually remember me or not!_ Kyouka bit back the words as she nodded and typed her response, her mood sinking further as she did. '_It's complicated. She did nothing wrong, but I'm just not up to talking to anyone right now._' Ignoring Yaomomo left an awful taste in her mouth, the reminder from Iida flooding her with renewed guilt, but she had to focus on the here and now.

'_Even so, please reach out to her. As I said, she's very concerned._'

She gave a thumbs up, her mind racing to figure out _something_ to get a response that would settle it once and for all. The door opened and another student entered, making her heart pick up its pace. Kyouka couldn't waste any more time, she had to cut straight to the point. '_Will do. Also, totally random but did your brother ever meet Stain?_'

There. That _had_ to be enough. Ingenium could walk here so he obviously hadn't met him, but his attack in her world had been enough to set Iida off for a while. If _anything_ would get a reaction from her Iida, it would be _this_.

However, as he looked at the response with a slight furrow she felt her heart sink once more, her hopes dashed once and for all. The genuine confusion on his face made it clear he had no memories of the battle even before he responded. '_Who's Stain?_' he typed, and that... okay, that actually caught Kyouka by surprise.

Was Stain not active here? Looking back, Kyouka hadn't seen anything about him in the news, and she hadn't looked him up. Come to think of it, the guy was a huge All Might fanatic, so maybe All Might's death turned him off the "Hero Killer" route. Or maybe he got killed years ago, or he simply never turned to vigilantism in this world.

...Or maybe he _was_ active, and his activities just hadn't been publicized.

Her lips pursed into a thin line as she typed her response, suddenly much more wary. She had no idea who Iida might talk to after this, and if Stain _did_ exist but had his crimes covered up, revealing she knew about him when she shouldn't could cause a lot of problems. '_Not sure tbh. I heard people gossiping about some guy named Stain on the way here._' There, that should be impossible to trace and confirm.

Iida frowned, opening his mouth before catching himself and clamping it shut with an even firmer frown. '_Eavesdropping even in public is incredibly rude and impolite!_' he scolded over text, and despite her sullen mood Kyouka smirked. Guess some things really didn't change.

'_Kinda can't help it right now._' She pointed to her earphone jacks, still plugged into her headphones, and Iida's stern expression quickly gave way to a more sheepish look.

'_My apologies, I forgot you were having sensitivity issues._' Kyouka just smirked, and started to type a response pointing out he'd still remembered to scold over text instead of vocally when the door opened. Two more students peeked inside, probably siblings based on their resemblance, but they remained outside as a lady Kyouka had seen at the desk in the front office stood in the doorway.

"Alright everyone, the last students are here. Time to go to the classroom." The assembled students all stowed their phones away as they got up to follow her, the quiet chatter dying down. Kyouka gave Iida one last nod before slipping out after them, trying not to feel too disheartened.

Iida didn't remember. Her theory was wrong. They really might be the only ones here from UA.

* * *

Ochaco felt reasonably sure she'd found the League of Villains/Villain Alliance.

After escaping the abandoned part of town where she'd almost been caught, she'd managed to find (populated) civilization once more and went straight to an internet cafe. Shelling out the funds to rent a spot even if she had plenty on hand at the moment had left her wanting to cry, thinking of how much food she could've bought with that money. But she had no choice, she _had_ to do research first and foremost.

It hadn't taken long to confirm there had been a large battle in Nabu six years prior, involving a bunch of local heroes and villains she didn't recognize. It had caused serious damage to the area, the photos from the time looking like something out of a war movie and making her gulp. The only reason it hadn't ended with a higher death toll was because the area had already been rundown and closed most businesses, so not many people frequented it anymore. Between that and the projected costs to repair it, the area had been written off as a total loss.

After confirming this information, Ochaco went straight to planning her next move. And when she thought about it, there was really only one choice: set up a stakeout and wait to see if the villains would show up. Calling the police wasn't an option, she'd get taken in before she'd have a chance to meet Deku, and yesterday she'd already reminded herself why Pro Heroes wouldn't work either.

That was how she found herself huddled on the second floor of some sort of shop on Monday, wrapped in a blanket while cooking ramen on a camping stove. She'd spent the night there, arriving just before dusk and staying there ever since. Ochaco chose the location because the building seemed stable, the second floor was intact and thus _somewhat_ insulated, and it had a good view of the building where she thought she'd seen the face.

Sleeping in a cold, abandoned building in winter had seemed like it would suck, but the three season sleeping bag she'd bought had been surprisingly warm. She'd be mad if it wasn't, because she'd almost _cried_ at the final price. Between that, the camping stove and everything else, she'd depleted a lot more of her funds than she'd liked, but she knew she couldn't skimp costs on this stuff, especially the sleeping bag.

_Aizawa-sensei would be proud,_ she mused, giggling quietly to herself as she thought of her teacher's characteristic sleeping bag. She still felt mildly disappointed she couldn't find one in the same gaudy shade of yellow, so out of place with their otherwise dark-looking and black-wearing teacher. The familiarity would have been nice, even if the thought also made her feel a little homesick.

While the sleeping bag might have the Eraserhead seal of approval, he'd probably be less approving of everything else she was doing right now. That thought sobered her mood, and she quietly went about turning off the stove and finishing the preparations to actually eat. Soon enough she sat by the window, looking out at the suspected villain base as she quietly ate her late breakfast.

Ochaco had stayed up until nearly dawn, figuring villains would be more active at night. No one had appeared though, and eventually she'd gone to sleep and woke up around half an hour ago. Since then she still hadn't seen anyone, much to her dismay. It was only day one though, surely she'd see _something_ if she waited long enough. Those villains yesterday had clearly been looking for her, so their base must be close.

Unfortunately, they _definitely_ weren't looking now.

Time dragged on slowly as Ochaco stared at the empty street, her initial adrenaline at being so close to enemy territory waning faster than she'd expected. Stakeouts turned out to be very boring, especially when you were alone. Eventually Ochaco got out some yarn to practice some string tricks the other girls had taught her. It would be quiet and help pass the time, but not take her total attention.

Probably another hour passed as she practiced making string figures. She was trying to remember the steps of this particularly complex one Yaomomo showed her when movement outside _finally_ caught her eye, at which point she abandoned the string to direct her full attention to the street. She didn't know whether to shout with joy or freeze with terror when she saw a small group of people striding towards the suspected base.

Almost all of them wore bulky winter coats that hid their figures, and even without those they were too far away to make out their features clearly. But Ochaco didn't need to look hard to recognize Shigaraki at the lead of the pack, his silvery-blue hair almost glowing against his black coat and pale severed hands gripping his sleeves. He strode towards the base with a brisk air about him, radiating danger even from a distance. She recognized Compress and Toga next to him, Mr. Compress's top hat and trench coat unchanged from her world and Toga's hair done in its usual buns, but all the others were unfamiliar.

This was it. This _had_ to be the base. Her heart pounded faster and faster as they reached the building, Shigaraki never breaking stride as he stepped into the gaping hole in its side with his small army trailing behind him.

She swallowed thickly as they all disappeared inside, pulling away from the window before scrambling to pack up her things. It only took her a couple minutes, having already folded and rolled up the sleeping bag after waking up. With the camping stove and all her clothes stuffed into it, her backpack had very little space left, and she silently bemoaned not buying an actual camping backpack. No time for regrets though. The bag was too bulky for her to wear while sneaking around, so for now she stashed it in a corner of the room to retrieve later and crept towards the stairs.

A quick five-fingered tap to her arm had her bypassing the creaky stairs to float over the bottom floor, quickly deactivating and then _re_activating it just before she could crash to the ground. Ochaco took a breath as she deactivated it a final time and her feet gently touched down on the wood with barely any sound at all, and she quickly darted towards the front of the building while keeping low.

Right now, she couldn't afford to get caught. While she wanted to join the Alliance to find Deku, getting captured while sneaking around their base's area might negate her chances of being recruited. And that assumed they wouldn't just, you know, kill her on the spot. She had no idea what to expect of them, so for now she'd need to observe them, gather all the information she could, and _then_ she could decide her next move.

"What are you doing?"

Ochaco almost _screamed_ at the voice behind her, only barely managing to suppress it to a gasp as she whirled around to see a dark-haired woman behind her. The stranger hadn't made a single noise until she spoke, her sudden appearance sending Ochaco's heartrate skyrocketing. While Ochaco didn't know her, it didn't take a genius to figure out she was probably with the Alliance. Her clothing looked too suited for fighting to be a random civilian, wearing a black coat and heavy combat-style boots, and those tinted goggles over her eyes only added to the subtle air of danger.

"I-I just—I was just, I saw people, a-and—" Ochaco started stammering nervously, but stopped as the woman held up a hand, her breath catching in her throat.

"Kid, this place is dangerous. You really shouldn't be here." Ochaco gulped, her hands clenching at her side.

"Are you with the Villain Alliance?" she asked, forcing the question to tumble out. The woman visibly stilled, and Ochaco wished she didn't have those tinted goggles because she'd give anything to be able to see her eyes and try to figure out what she was thinking. Asking outright like that had to be the riskiest thing she could do, but if this woman was a member of the Alliance, this might be her chance.

"...Kid, _please_ tell me you're not angling to be a vigilante," the woman groaned, pressing her hand to the bridge of her nose. "Last I checked we've already got one all locked up, and I'd really rather we don't fill up any _more_ cells with stupid teenagers who think they can take on murderers." Her words simultaneously terrified Ochaco and sent her heart soaring, being as good confirmation as she could get.

"I'm not!" she replied quickly. "I'm—do you know Midoriya Izuku?"

The woman visibly tensed once more, and her hand slowly lowered from her face as her mouth pulled into a frown. "...Izu...?" she murmured, so quietly Ochaco almost didn't hear it. "You're..."

Before she could finish speaking they heard a loud shout from behind, and Ochaco spun to look at the base. Another shout sounded followed by a guy being thrown out the second story window, making her eyes widen. _What the hell?_ Seconds later she felt a hand grip her shoulder, and she turned her head to see overly long, black-tipped fingers that looked like claws digging into her sleeve.

"Time to go," the woman said behind her.

Then Ochaco was yanked back and fell into a void.

* * *

**For those curious for details about the Mineta post (though I doubt anyone is): the villain smashed a hole through the train, followed by it derailing and turning over on its side, thus causing people to fall through the hole he'd made. Mineta panicked and threw a bunch of balls onto the walls and one girl got caught on them, keeping her from falling (and him too when he grabbed onto her legs). Total panic reaction, but the kid saved a life. Also, we have now confirmed that Iida is NOT from the main dimension. Too bad.  
**

**Also, hi Aiko. Bye Ochaco. Whee!  
**

**Question for next time: what heroes could you see working as villains in this AU?  
**


	30. Chapter 30: Planning is Everything

Chapter 30

.::Planning is Everything::.

Phase one of the plan had gone almost terrifyingly well in Izuku's opinion. Kacchan had not onyl been released from the blocky metal restraints, but had also been given limited freedom to roam the base. Limited, because he almost always had to be accompanied by Izuku, had to be back in his cell by ten, and had also been fitted with the same anklet Shinsou had.

You know, the one that was a _bomb_.

It took all of Izuku's willpower to not stare at it in horror whenever they saw each other. While Bakugou's Quirk gave his body some natural protections from his own explosions, Izuku doubted that applied to actual bombs. He couldn't exactly ask either, because he hadn't told either of his friends yet about the anklets' explosive nature. He wasn't trying to hide it on purpose, he just didn't know how to tell either of his friends that they had bombs strapped to their ankles. Bad as it sounded, he kinda wanted to just... not think about it right now.

Fortunately, they had plenty of distractions right now as they all sat in Shinsou's cell, a handful of notebooks spread on the floor and open on their laps.

"Alright, so far these journals are fucking useless," Bakugou grunted as he held one up. "I'm not getting anything useful from this stupid thing except griping about playing games with that creepy hands fucker and some asshole named Mustard making people do stupid dares."

"Yeah, I'm not finding much either," Izuku sighed as he flipped through another journal. "This one is mostly about me and Toga trying on school uniforms to decide the best ones. I don't know where she got them, but I guess we spent a week doing that."

"What the fuck is the point of _that_?" Bakugou asked, and Izuku could only shrug. While they talked Shinsou picked up a cell phone Izuku had gotten from Kurogiri after commenting on how slow it was to have Shinsou write out his responses. It couldn't make any calls or connect to the internet, and the screen had a massive crack, but it had a text to speech app to use as a substitute for the white board. The three treated the device as the godsend it was, and Izuku made a mental note to thank Kurogiri again later.

"_Does Seiko sleep?_" the phone's electronic voice asked, and both Izuku and Bakugou turned to look at him incredulously.

"What the _actual_ fuck? That creepy kid you and Deku mentioned? Where'd _that_ come from?"

"_Mido-ri-ya and To-ga spent two weeks trying to find out if she sleeps,_" Shinsou explained, the phone pronouncing the names with a slightly stilted delivery. "_They gave up._" Izuku blinked as the words sank in, and then gave a small shudder. Since that unsettling conversation with Seiko on Saturday, he'd realized she didn't _actually_ always watch him like she claimed, since he'd called out to her while alone and gotten no response on two separate occasions. That didn't make her any less unsettling though, and the point Shinsou raised just added to his unease.

Today she'd also been absent, and so was a majority of the Alliance. He had no idea what they were doing, but it must be some major operation as the only one still hanging around was Twice. And even then, he suspected it was one of his clones rather than the original. The most Izuku knew was that Shigaraki told him he'd be home in time for dinner before he followed the others through one of Kurogiri's portals.

Whatever the reason, the trio of teenagers decided to take advantage of the villains' absences to have a meeting in Shinsou's cell. Shigaraki had given permission to bring Bakugou along on unsupervised visits to the vigilante under the guise of helping sway Shinsou to join them, so it hadn't been hard to convince Twice to allow another one.

Izuku and Bakugou had brought a total of six journals and analysis notebooks so they could review his counterpart's notes to try to develop a more solid plan. He'd only felt comfortable smuggling a few, since they had no idea when the Alliance members would return and it would be suspicious to have his entire collection in Shinsou's room. They could at least hide these on the bookshelf if someone showed up randomly.

So far they hadn't gotten any really useful information from them though. Izuku sighed as he closed the notebook on his lap, tossing it onto the pile and grabbing journal two in its place. He'd made sure to grab it specifically since it had the map of the base, and he flipped to the earmarked page with a pen in hand. At this point it'd probably be better to just go over what they _did_ know.

He could see Shinsou and Bakugou put aside their notebooks as they recognized which one he'd grabbed, anticipating the review. "Okay, so Kacchan and I explored yesterday with Mr. Compress," he started.

"Most annoying tour guide ever," Bakugou added under his breath, eye visibly twitching. Mr. Compress had been rather enthusiastic about his self-imposed role, speaking with all the grandeur and flair one would expect of a former professional magician. Izuku had no idea how the man got wind of the impromptu tour, but Shigaraki had promptly excused himself when Compress showed up in a puff of smoke so it worked out in the end.

"Anyways, we didn't actually _see_ any of the exits, but we got to see some other rooms and areas I couldn't remember." He turned the map to show them as he spoke. "This room is one of three different areas that were converted to hold prisoners. Kacchan's room is in this other one here. Mr. Compress said we don't _actually_ get prisoners that often, but we use three areas to make it harder to find prisoners if heroes find us and try to pull off a rescue. Some of the grunts also stay in the cells, but the major members mostly live here."

He pointed to another hallway, both Bakugou and Shinsou leaning forward for a better look. "The most notable members who live on base are Shigaraki, Kurogiri, Magne, Mr. Compress, Toga, and Twice. I think there's a couple others, but I don't know most of them though." Izuku had seen a few other people around the base on a regular basis, but they never spoke and he only saw them in passing. "The hall with my room has no one there besides me."

The others nodded, and Shinsou picked up the phone to type something. "_What's in the room with the skull and cross-bones?_" he asked, and Izuku had to pause to turn the notebook to look at the map. He quickly found the room he'd indicated, located in the far end of the hall that served as the third area for prisoners, and it took a second to remember what that room had been.

"Oh, that's... I'm, uh, not actually sure," he admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

"That's the room that had the biohazard sign, right?" Bakugou asked with a scoff. "The magician wannabe opened it, and it was a bunch of stairs leading down. He said it was too dangerous to go down and that 'Aiko' lady would kill him if we did."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Izuku said with a nod, frowning at the memory. He had told both his friends about Aiko at the initial meeting on Saturday since she posed the greatest unknown element, but right now he knew about as much about her as they did. Which was a great big _nothing_.

Mr. Compress had been rather dramatic about her threatening people to stay out of the basement, swooning as he mentioned the death threat and the numerous people who had ventured there anyway, never to return. He'd ended it with an implied wink (not that they could see it with his mask) to Izuku as he added, "_Of course, _he_ can tell you why the threat's unnecessary._" That had bothered him more than he'd like to admit because that implied Izuku knew what was down there, but he obviously lacked the memory.

"I have no idea what's down there," he said, putting it all on the table. "I know Aiko doesn't actually live here, but that's it. My best guess it's some kind of lab since it had the biohazard sign." The way Mr. Compress talked made him think the space itself was dangerous, so a lab seemed like the best guess. He just didn't know what _type_ of lab it could be.

The only thing he knew for sure was that it wasn't a Noumu production facility or anything like that. All For One had died in the battle with All Might, and he couldn't see them making more without him. The fact no Noumu had been reported or mentioned anywhere—whether in news reports, his journals or just plans he overheard the Alliance making—left him doubting whether any even _existed_ in this world.

One of the few good things about this twisted world.

"There's one other point in favor of it being a lab," he said, dismissing the thought. "I looked up our location on my phone this morning." Both of the other teens perked up, sitting straighter as they looked at him expectantly. It had been Shinsou's suggestion yesterday to check the built-in map app to find where the phone was located. Izuku still felt dumb for not thinking of it himself.

Well, at least he knew it now. He pulled out his phone—thankful Twice hadn't thought to check if he had it or not before letting him visit Shinsou like Shigaraki had—and opened the browser as he talked. "We're in Nabu, in Shizuoka prefecture." The quiet scoff from Shinsou made it clear he'd already known that part, which was interesting, but Izuku ignored it for the moment. "The building we're in used to be a lab dedicated to researching Quirks."

He turned the phone to show them an article about the building with a frown. The discovery had been surprising at the time, and after looking into the building's history he'd been left more than a little uncomfortable. "It shut down around twenty years ago. A lot of the staff lived on-site, and some of the cells were used to hold patients back then."

"Patients or prisoners?" Bakugou asked, eyes narrowed.

"Patients," Izuku affirmed. "They were mostly people with Quirks they couldn't control, or people who didn't _want_ Quirks. Most of them came here voluntarily, but a few had to be brought in against their will. It wasn't shady or anything, and shut down when they moved to a new facility." He paused, grimacing as he added, "At least, I think so." The others shot him curious looks at that but he didn't feel like expanding on it.

The articles hadn't been too unsavory, but knowing how long All For One existed and the lab's purpose, he likely had a hand in the building's history. The fact that a building dedicated to researching Quirks became the Alliance's base felt a bit too ironic to be a coincidence, especially since it still had working power. He felt like the choice hadn't been just a random abandoned building.

The third area for prisoners was what _really_ worried him. It wasn't located too far from this hallway, but it had been clearly separated from the rest of the building behind a high-security door. The Alliance had removed the door itself since moving in, but they'd left the frame in place and it had a keypad and card scanner. Beyond that, something about the air there just felt _heavy_ compared to the rest of the building.

The most concerning detail though was that it had the basement stairs leading to Aiko's restricted space—the _only_ stairs leading to the basement. It just made him more wary of what might be down there, and he really didn't want to talk about his suspicions with the others just yet.

Bakugou seemed to realize Izuku had no intentions of elaborating on the building's history or his theories, as he just sighed. "Okay, fine. Good to know. But what about the area actually around the building? Just having an address isn't gonna fucking cut it if we want to escape."

Izuku perked up, relieved at the subject change. "Right! So the area we're in _is_ pretty shady and rundown but not abandoned. You know, the kind of place people lock their cars while driving through. It's pretty much on the edge of the city and it backs up against the mountains, so not many people really want to live here, and it just kinda got worse over time."

He switched from the browser to the map to show them. "So, the main downtown area of Nabu is most active over here," he scrolled the map to the side and pointed to the area in question for emphasis, "And as you can see it's kinda far away. I haven't gone outside the building that I can remember, but I talked to Kurogiri last night and he said it's pretty dangerous until about here." He scrolled along the map again, and pointed to an area about a kilometer away.

Shinsou picked up the phone to type. "_And that's why he warps you whenever you leave, right?_"

"Right," Izuku confirmed with a nod, and turned the phone to pull up the saved location left by his alternate counterpart for the area with the warehouse. "He usually drops me off around here, which is actually in the next city over. It's not super busy, but it's generally less shady and safer than the area around the base. There's an abandoned warehouse a few blocks away from the alley where he drops me off."

"So what, you think that'll be a good hiding spot?" Bakugou asked, and Izuku nodded.

"It's as good as any. There are stores nearby, so I can stock up on food and supplies to stash there before we run away. I have a lot of money saved up from birthdays and stuff, so I can use it a little bit at a time to avoid being suspicious." Bakugou nodded as Izuku outlined his rough plan, but Shinsou's eyes narrowed before he began typing.

"_If you go there a lot they probably know about it,_" the electronic voice of the phone said. "_Your phone has location tracking on. It will be the first place they look._" The words made Izuku pause, and his shoulders sagged with disappointment.

"Oh," he said lamely. That had not occurred to him, but now that Shinsou had said it he felt like an idiot for not realizing that sooner. His phone had location tracking enabled so the Alliance could track him whenever he left the base alone, just in case something happened. Of course their first step would be to check his history. "Maybe I could leave the phone at the warehouse, and look for somewhere else?"

"Two problems," Bakugou said, and Izuku felt himself deflating further before he even got to the first one. "One, what if they try to contact you while you're away from your phone? Something tells me Shittyraki won't be too happy if he tries to call you and finds your phone abandoned." Izuku winced because yeah, Bakugou was definitely right about that. "And secondly, you're _Quirkless_. If something happens, that phone is your only way to call for help."

That got another wince, but for a completely different reason. "Um, about that," he said awkwardly. He could _see_ the moment the two realized where this was going, both of them sitting straighter and their eyes narrowing.

"Deku, what the hell are you hiding now," Bakugou said slowly. Izuku hesitated to answer, eyes flitting around the room before settling on the bookcase. He put down his phone and the journal so he could roll onto his knees and crawl over to it, plucking off a thick, hardcover book. Turning to face them while gripping each cover, he took a deep breath and then just.

Channeled two percent of One For All into his hands and ripped it cleanly in half.

As the two halves of the book fell to the ground Bakugou and Shinsou just stared, Shinsou at the fallen remains of the book while Bakugou focused purely on Izuku. "Deku," he said stiffly. "What the fuck. What the _actual_ fuck."

"I don't know," he said, and it wasn't even a total lie. He had no idea if One For All had followed him from his own world, or if the other Izuku had somehow gotten it himself despite All Might being dead. "It's not mentioned in any of the journals, or the letter, or my notebooks, or _anything_, and everyone else thinks I'm Quirkless. But—I have it." Bakugou just stared, clearly in shock, while Shinsou tilted his head.

"_Is it a strength Quirk?_" he asked, and Izuku shrugged.

"I guess, kinda? But the real problem is that it's kinda _too_ strong for me. If I use it too much, it'll break my body instead."

"How do you know _that_ if you can't remember it?"

"Muscle memory, I think," Izuku replied, and then paused and frowned at himself. The answer came so quick he hadn't even thought about it, but once he said it, it... made sense? "Like... I think I can kinda tell that I've broken my bones in the past, and I feel like it's connected to my Quirk." The words came out slowly and uncertain, but as he said them they felt undeniably _true_. It could just be experience from training with it back home, but...

Something about this felt different.

His discomfort must have shown on his face, judging by the frown Kacchan shot him. "Deku, what's going on?"

"I... don't know," Izuku said quietly, and he didn't. He could see Shinsou typing in the corner of his vision, but he didn't get a chance to finish before they heard a distant bang. Voices began sounding outside all at once, muffled by the walls and distance, but they could make out a large number of different ones. It looked like the Alliance had returned.

The trio exchanged looks before they closed the notebooks and quickly carried them to the bookcase. "We're talking about this later," Kacchan hissed, and Izuku could only nod. They hid the notebooks behind the other books there, not wanting to risk leaving them in the open in case Shigaraki or someone else decided to drop in.

As Izuku turned away he saw Shinsou holding the phone to him, and he reluctantly took it and slid it into his pocket. Kurogiri may have given it to him so Shinsou could communicate more easily, but they hadn't run it by Shigaraki just yet. Izuku had a feeling he wouldn't wait for them to explain it couldn't actually contact anyone if he dropped by and saw Shinsou holding it. Disintegrating it would only take a few seconds.

Shinsou returned to his bed and turned on the console to load up Mario Kart, giving them a ready excuse for any sudden visitors. "What do you think those guys were up to, anyway?" Bakugou grumbled as he joined Shinsou.

"No idea," Izuku responded, focused on ripping up the already torn book into smaller pieces so he could smuggle them out. "But—hey, hold on. Seiko?" They all paused and held their breaths, eyes flitting to the shadows, but when she didn't appear they relaxed. "Well, I think she went with them since she didn't respond to me this morning after they left, so it must have been a _really_ big operation."

They could hear some voices more clearly now, the speakers clearly walking by the door. Bakugou squinted as he turned to look at the door. "Hey, Deku, what direction are those people coming?"

"Um. Sounds like the direction with the wall where Hijack's bed is." Izuku paused then, twisting his head to look at the wall as the implications of his words registered. That direction had only a few areas, none of which seemed like places the Alliance would use as a warp point when returning from a big operation.

None except for the third area for prisoners.

A chill ran down his spine, and he shoved the shreds of book he'd been holding into his pockets as he slowly got up. "Hey guys, can you do me a favor and hide the rest of this under the mattress or something?" he asked absently, gaze locked on the door. "I'm gonna check on something."

"I'm coming with you," Bakugou said as he got up, but Izuku shook his head.

"No, don't. Just stay here, if there's something up it's better I check it out alone. We don't want you to be put back in your cell." Bakugou scowled but didn't try to argue, collapsing back onto the bed with an angry huff.

"Fine. But if they get mad at me for being here alone, I'm blaming you."

"I'll take the blame," Izuku assured him, and headed out. The door locked behind him as he closed it, making him wince, but he ignored it as he started down the hall. He could see a couple more villains heading his way, nameless grunts he didn't really know. They chatted lowly as he passed, giving him a wide berth as if not wanting him to overhear. It just made the pit of unease in his stomach grow.

As he turned around the corner leading to the hallway with the doorway to the prisoner area the voices became even louder, eliminating any doubts as to their source. His heart pounded as he began walking towards it, unable to make out any words but recognizing several of the voices. Among them was Shigaraki's, too low to hear but clearly full of irritation.

A flicker of black appeared in the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to see Seiko standing in an open doorway. For a moment they just looked at each other, saying nothing. Then she inclined her head and disappeared, melting into the shadows. A shudder ran down his spine, and Izuku swallowed thickly before steeling his nerves and marching onward. As he reached the empty frame of the high-security door he paused and took a deep breath before taking the final step forward, turning to look down the hall.

The first thing he noticed was Shigaraki, decked out in a black trench coat with the disembodied hands gripping his arms. Izuku shuddered at the sight and tore his gaze away to look at the rest of the Alliance members there, most of them nameless grunts he only vaguely recognized. They crowded around the entrance to one of the cells, clearly struggling to force someone inside based on all the grunting and movement.

"Seriously, just give it a rest already," Shigaraki said impatiently. "You're getting way too annoying for a bonus drop." As if on cue one of the villains gave a pained grunt as their prisoner slammed into him, stumbling back from the impact. As he moved to the side Izuku caught a brief glimpse of the prisoner, trying to break through the thin gap he'd created.

Before Izuku could get a good look the other villains surged forward, the nearest one slamming the man to the ground. A pained shout rang out as he fell, muffled by what must be a gag, but something about it made Izuku's blood suddenly chill. Two of the villains pinned the struggling man to the floor, one laying his elbow and forearm on his back while the other kept a firm grip on his shoulders.

The other villains stepped back as Shigaraki approached to bend down next to his head sigh. He grabbed the man's hair and lifted his head, and Izuku's blood turned to absolute ice as he finally saw the face of the prisoner they'd brought.

"I mean it," Shigaraki said firmly. "You're starting to be more trouble than you're worth, Eraserhead."

Aizawa-sensei.

_Aizawa-sensei_ was on the ground in front of Shigaraki, pinned by villains with arms bound behind his back. A white blindfold had been wrapped tight around his eyes and another piece of cloth tied around his mouth, but Izuku would recognize his teacher's shaggy black hair anywhere. The man looked awful even beyond that, his cheeks more sunken than they should be and his stubble slightly thicker than he usually sported it.

A guttural growl escaped, clearly challenging Shigaraki even in his current position, and the villain scoffed. "I said stop," he snapped, and slammed Aizawa's face to the floor eliciting a pained noise. Izuku felt his breathing stop, memories of a sickening crack and an inhuman screech flashing through his head. Suddenly he wasn't in the hallway but instead back in USJ, watching helplessly as his teacher was relentlessly slammed to the cement by the Noumu.

As Aizawa's struggles momentarily ceased Shigaraki paused, looking up at the grunts, and then he suddenly turned to look back at Izuku.

Time resumed and Izuku snapped back to reality as their gazes met, Shigaraki's face free of the hand which haunted his dream and allowing a clear view of those eerie red eyes. The villain looked at him for a moment before he slowly rose to his full height, his eyes narrowing. "You're not supposed to be here," he muttered testily, and sharply turned around to face the other villains as they pulled Aizawa to his feet.

The hero sagged almost limply in their grip, head lolling forward as he groaned in pain. Izuku could only stare in horror as he absorbed the rest of his teacher's state—no boots or capture weapon, not even his costume. He wore dark clothes that didn't look like they fit properly, and he wore cold-looking metal shackles around his ankles. He even had a bulky metal _collar_ with several chain links attached to it, making his throat tighten.

"Kurogiri."

The sharply spoken name startled Izuku from his stunned stupor, and he snapped back to reality as he felt a familiar presence appear behind him. "Wait—" He couldn't finish the sentence before Kurogiri's portal consumed him and pulled him away from the hallway.

* * *

**Everyone: "I hope Izuku/Todoroki/Uraraka/Jirou & Kaminari rescues Aizawa!"**

**Aizawa: *gets "rescued" by ****Shigaraki instead***

**I am looking forward WAY too much to everyone's reactions.**

**Question for next time: I don't think I need one. Just predictions and thoughts on Aizawa's latest predicament will do for now.**


	31. Chapter 31: How to NOT Handle Panic

Chapter 31

.::Finally Something Nice::.

_No._

_No, no, no, no, no!_

Izuku wanted to scream as the portal vanished around him, a pained gasp escaping him as he staggered where he stood. Tears stung at the corner of his eyes as he stood there, his breathing harsh and heavy as his heart thundered in his chest.

Aizawa-sensei had been captured by the League. His face still appeared clearly in Izuku's mind, that blinding white blindfold covering his eyes and the gag tied around his mouth. _Too tight,_ some voice cried, _the cloth was digging into his skin, they were both so _tight_._ His teacher had been so much paler than he remembered, so much smaller and vulnerable than he could ever imagine even as he tried to struggle.

A pained gasp escaped him as he fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around himself as he tried to steady his ever-faster breathing. It felt almost like he was hyperventilating—no, he _was_ hyperventilating, this was too much, this was too horrible, why was Aizawa-sensei there, why did he look like that, what were they _doing_—

He didn't know how the sudden calm washed over him, just that his mind randomly went blank. He blinked in surprise at the abrupt change, his panic just... _gone_, and leaving his mind feeling oddly empty and clear. As he sat in a dazed sort of confusion he belatedly noticed a pair of hands gripping his shoulders, and he slowly lifted his head to find himself staring into a pair of eyes that looked like the night sky.

_Aiko._ The woman crouched in front of him with a faint frown, her galaxy-like eyes boring into him as she gently held his shoulders. "You okay?" she asked softly, and Izuku blinked slowly.

"I... think so?" he said, the words quiet and tinged with muted uncertainty and confusion. "What...?"

"You were having a panic attack, so I stopped it." She released his shoulders and backed off while Izuku just stared at her, gradually piecing it together.

"I... My mind just—went blank," he said slowly. "Did you...?" Aiko sighed as he trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck and looking away.

"Yeah. I tapped into your emotions and did a quick shut-down. Sorry for doing it like that, I am... not good with strong emotions." She grimaced slightly and got to her feet, Izuku absently following suit. She turned away to pad over to a small kitchen and only then did Izuku finally notice his surroundings, realizing with a start he didn't recognize it at all.

At first glance, they seemed to be in some sort of apartment. The furniture was maybe a little worn, but the space was warm and inviting with light yellow walls and a brightly colored rug. Photos sat on a table beneath the window, creamy curtains pulled aside to let sunlight stream inside, and Izuku realized with a start that a framed poster of a hero team hung on the wall next to it.

"Is that an autographed poster of Team Storm Chaser?" he blurted, and was responded by a warm laugh from Aiko. He turned to look at her in the kitchen, standing over a steaming red pot and watching him a fond smile.

"Yep," she confirmed with a bright smile. "Figures you'd still recognize a bunch of heroes you never met." Izuku felt his cheeks flush as he turned back to the poster, drawn in by the sense of familiarity. The poster showed the six heroes who had been active around the time of his birth, gathered on the steps to one of their bases.

Storm Chaser, the founder and leader, stood front and center. Shadesse and Phoenix, the two female members of the group, flanked him on either side, with Noir standing close to Phoenix and the mist-producing Veilance on Shadesse's other side. The space-themed Cosmonaut sat on the steps behind Storm Chaser slightly to his left, waving at the camera and almost seeming to be giving their leader bunny ears.

A pang of nostalgia and comfort washed over Izuku as he looked at it. They had this exact poster hanging over the couch in their living room at home, mainly because his own room had no space left for non-All Might posters. That poster had also been autographed, a gift for his fifth birthday that had left him squealing with delight, and he briefly wondered if this might _be_ that very poster.

A look at the signatures squashed that thought, though. Shadesse's signature instantly caught his eye, making his shoulders droop in disappointment. The Japanese heroine, who had a ninja theme and could store objects in scrolls, had disappeared from the public radar when he was about four. To this day he didn't know whether she died or retired, but her signature had been absent on that poster.

In her place this poster lacked Noir's signature, which made him a bit sad. The French hero had also disappeared rather abruptly, the last member of Team Storm Chaser to leave the public eye, but Izuku had been eight at that point and could thus remember it more clearly. His missing signature suggested he'd died earlier in this world. He noticed the poster also lacked Veilance's signature, but that didn't surprise him. The man had died while Izuku had been an infant, the first in the string of tragedies to befall the team.

The team had mostly disbanded before Izuku was old enough to fully appreciate them, only able to look in awe at their history. Team Storm Chaser had been among the first hero teams that could be described as truly international, basing themselves out of no single country. The complexities and differences in international laws made it tricky for most heroes to work outside the country where they received their licenses. Rescue heroes had always been given leeway to work in other countries, but most of them still had one country where they primarily based out of.

While only one member remained active in his own world, their influence remained powerful. Plenty of rescue heroes cited them as an inspiration, from full teams like Eurosafe who operated all across Europe to individual heroes like Thirteen here in Japan. He still thought Thirteen's costume might be at least a partial homage to Cosmonaut, who also sported a helmet that had a digital screen to mimic eyes and facial expressions—

"Izuku, you're mumbling again," Aiko commented, and he slapped his hands over his mouth with a startled squeak. Blushing, he turned around to find her watching him with an undeniably fond smile, her expression soft as she propped her hand on her cheek. "My, some things really do never change."

Izuku felt his face grow even more red, and he groaned softly as he hung his head in embarrassment. Aiko just laughed quietly, and he glanced up when he heard a cabinet opening to see her pull out a mug. His heart swelled as he recognized the bright blue, red and gold color scheme as trademarks of All Might, something in his chest soaring at the sight. This was the first time he'd seen _any_ merchandise for his mentor and predecessor since coming here.

She set it on the counter alongside two other mugs, and at that moment his brief euphoria was replaced by surprise. "Is there someone else here?" he asked, and paused. "Um, and where is 'here' anyway?"

"My apartment," Aiko replied, pouring the pot's contents into the mugs. A sweet aroma drifted his way as he watched brown liquid pour out and he perked up, instantly recognizing it as hot chocolate. He crossed the room almost unconsciously, hands cupping around the All Might mug with a bright smile.

"Thank you," he said. Rather than respond Aiko pulled out a few tiny marshmallows from an open bag on the counter and sprinkled them into his mug. "Thank you _so much_," he repeated even more enthusiastically and firmly, and she laughed, adding marshmallows to one of the other mugs. The stars in her eyes seemed to twinkle and flicker, a subtle thing that was no less mesmerizing.

"As I said, some things don't change," she said with a smile as she carried them to the couch. Izuku followed dutifully, silently noting a door that led presumably to a bedroom before sitting down. He sipped at the hot chocolate as he watched Aiko set the third mug on the coffee table.

"Seriously, _is_ someone here though?" he muttered with a small frown.

"Yeah, she'll be out in a minute," Aiko said as she sat next to him with her own mug. "Before that though, mind telling me what's got you so freaked out? It's not every day that Kurogiri randomly warps you to my living room seconds away from a panic attack." The comment made Izuku freeze with the mug right next to his mouth, suddenly flashing back to the scene he'd seen just before arriving. Aizawa-sensei bound and gagged, shoved to the floor and clearly in bad shape—

He sucked in a sharp breath, and then winced when he accidentally inhaled some of the hot chocolate in the process. "_Hot!_" he yelped reflexively, coughing and hurriedly putting down the mug. A water bottle happened to be sitting on the coffee table, and he swiped it up to down it to soothe his sore tongue. Once he finished he paused, lowering it with a frown. "...Um, this isn't mine."

"No, it isn't," Aiko agreed, sounding amused. Izuku's shoulders slumped while she gave a soft snort, turning back to sip at her hot chocolate. "If you don't want to tell me what happened, that's okay." Her words made him freeze again, and he turned to look at her in surprise. Aiko didn't look at him, her eyes closed as she idly sipped from her mug. "You're still having an episode, right?"

"...Is it that obvious?" he asked gloomily, and the corners of her lips quirked upwards.

"Izun, usually you'll tell me exactly what happened to freak you out the second the panic attack stops so I can go fix it. You _also_ don't look around like it's your first time ever seeing this place and act shocked that I have a poster showing a bunch of heroes." Her voice had a faint teasing note to it, one that felt both comforting and familiar yet guilt-inducing to Izuku at the same time.

"We're really close, aren't we," he murmured, turning to look at his hot chocolate with a more somber mood.

"You're like my family," Aiko replied softly, and the words startled him enough to snap a wide-eyed look back at her. She still looked at her mug but had a soft smile, her eyes distant and wistful as she spoke. "It might not be by blood and you might not always remember me, but that's okay. I don't have many siblings left, and you're the only family I can see. As long as I still breathe, no matter what you do, I'll be on your side."

As he listened Izuku felt his shoulders sag once more, slowly turning back to his mug. Aiko's words made a warm feeling curl inside his chest, a flicker of fondness and safety and _familiarity_ that didn't belong to him. Once again it struck him how out of place he was here, and how he'd just stolen the place of another Izuku while all the people around him remained oblivious.

He sighed, gingerly sipping at the hot chocolate while being careful not to scald his already-sore tongue. "I'm sorry I don't remember you," he said after he swallowed, and meant it. Aiko just hummed though, neither sad nor happy as she sipped her own.

"It's fine, and I mean it. It's always a gamble if you do or don't with episodes. Honestly, sometimes I feel like it's better you don't always remember," she added more softly, and he raised his head in surprise to find a wistful smile on her face. "It feels nice to have a blank slate sometimes."

Izuku frowned, a bit confused by her statement, especially when she made a small snort at some joke he didn't understand, but he didn't feel up to asking about it right now. He still felt guilty for not being _her_ Izuku... and also more than a little shattered by the revelation about Aizawa. His stomach sank as he turned back to his hot chocolate a final time, frowning miserably at his reflection in the warm brown liquid.

"...They captured a hero," he said, and Aiko looked over at him. He continued staring at his reflection, just... talking. "I was hanging out with Kacchan and S—_Hijack_, in Hijack's room, when we heard everyone come back. We could hear them all coming from this one direction and I realized they kept people prisoner down there too, so I went to look, and..." He trailed off, taking a shuddery breath.

He couldn't get rid of the image of Shigaraki slamming Aizawa's face to the floor. It hadn't been too hard, but it had brought back horrible memories of the Noumu slamming his teacher's head against the plaza at the USJ. A cold chill rushed down his spine at the memory, _both_ memories, his hands shaking as he gripped the mug tighter.

"I see," Aiko said softly next to him, and faced her mug with a sigh. "Well, that explains Kurogiri randomly dropping you off. Even when you're not mid-episode, you tend to get pretty freaked out by how rough they can get." Izuku glanced at her in mild surprise, watching her sip her hot chocolate with a thoughtful hum. "They won't get suspicious about you having an episode so you're good for now. But back up, what was that about Kacchan?"

She turned to look at him with her eyebrows furrowed, while Izuku just stared at her. After a few seconds of silence Aiko blinked, head tilting slightly to the side. "Did that come out weird?" she asked.

"I think, yeah? A little bit?" He'd kind of expected something more—he didn't know, _sisterly_, he guessed? Like, comforting him? Not just commenting on him hiding his "episode." Which... actually was good to know. He hadn't thought about that yet, he'd been too focused on freaking out over Aizawa being captured, but at least he didn't have to worry about that _now_.

"...I am not the best at comforting people, heh," Aiko said with a sardonic smile, chuckling humorlessly as she turned away. They sat in silence for a few seconds, and then she faced him again with a frown. "Though seriously, what's this about Katsuki?"

"Huh? Uh, how—" Before he could finish he heard thumps from the other side of the wall behind them, and he twisted to look at it with wide eyes.

"Oh, guess she's done with the shower," Aiko hummed.

"She?" Izuku repeated. "Who—" He didn't get a chance to finish before the bedroom door opened, and he turned to look at it in surprise. Then, for the second time in not even fifteen minutes his heart seemed to stop, his eyes widening in recognition as a familiar person stepped out. "Uraraka?"

Uraraka squeaked at her name, whirling to face him with equally large eyes. As their gazes locked he felt his heart skip a beat, a sudden sense of nostalgia and familiarity washing over him. Her hair still looked wet from the shower, and she wore a slightly too-big t-shirt and pink pajama pants with a paw print pattern that had to be rolled up around her ankles. But after everything else that happened today, she had never looked so amazing to him.

As they looked at each other she visibly lit up, her face breaking into a giant smile. "Deku!" she cheered, and lunged across the room to tackle him in a hug. Izuku yelped as his arms flailed at his sides upon impact, sinking even deeper into the couch. If he hadn't already been sitting the hug would have knocked him off his feet for sure. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Uraraka?" he sputtered, still in shock. "What the—how—w-what are you doing—" Then something else registered and he bolted upright with enough force to knock her arms loose as he gasped. "_The hot chocolate!_" He'd been holding the mug when Uraraka tackle-hugged him, but when he looked at his hand now it was empty. Oh crap, where did it—

"It's right here," Aiko said, and they both looked at the woman as she held up his mug with an amused smile. "You are so lucky I have such good reflexes, or this would have spilled all over me." Izuku's face turned bright crimson, and it grew even redder as he realized Uraraka was _still_ partially leaning over him. When he looked at her their eyes met again, and he could see her realize the same thing as her own face flushed red.

Cue Uraraka scrambling back and Izuku sinking deeper into the cushions, both of them covering their faces and wishing they could disappear. Aiko just laughed at their embarrassment, setting Izuku's mug on the table next to her own. "I found your friend hanging around a villain base the Alliance planned to raid earlier today," she told him with a smirk. "It sounds like she thought it was their base, and she was hoping to join the Alliance to find _you_."

Izuku's embarrassed flush vanished as he snapped a look of stone-cold horror her way, horrified by this information. To her credit Uraraka couldn't meet his gaze, staring down at her feet with a miserable frown. "You were _what_?" he squeaked.

"I didn't know what else to do!" she protested. "I know it's dangerous, but I mean—I couldn't just leave you alone! You're—" She stopped short, shooting Aiko a mild frown. Izuku followed her gaze, and the woman tilted her head at them with a sunny smile.

"Don't mind me, keep on talking," she said cheerfully, and Izuku had to suppress a groan.

"Aiko-nee, I'm really sorry, but could you maybe give us some space?" he asked hesitantly. "I know it's probably rude to ask b-because this is your apartment, I guess, but this is kinda private, and..." He trailed off as Aiko's smile shifted to wide-eyed surprise, making him shrink back nervously. "Um, w-what is it?"

"You called me Aiko-nee." She broke into a brilliant smile that caught him by surprise, almost as much as her words did. _She really did care about the other Izuku, huh._ Her fondness for his counterpart was evident in the warmth of her voice and expression, clearly happy he used the term even while supposedly amnesic. After a moment she got off the couch and grabbed her mug, ruffling his hair with her free hand while he squawked. "Alright, I'll give you two some space. You'll have all night to talk anyway."

"We will?" Izuku asked in surprise, and Aiko hummed, plucking a cell phone from the couch's arm.

"Kurogiri texted me to ask you to spend the night." Wait, what? When did that happen? Aiko turned on the phone to open her texts as she added, "Himiko also said she took your friend back to his room before Tomura could notice, so you don't have to worry about that." Oh crap, Izuku totally forgot Kacchan was still in Shinsou's room when he left. He'd been so freaked out by seeing Aizawa-sensei it slipped his mind.

Aiko slid the phone into her pocket as she smiled at him. "Anyways, your room's in the apartment next door, and there's plenty of your stuff there if you guys want to hang out there. I'll give you two some space to talk for now, Seiko never comes here so you'll have plenty of privacy. I need to go talk to Tomura and Seiko about things."

"Things?" Izuku repeated. In response Aiko just smiled _wider_, and while it wasn't _malicious_ it had that eerie sort of too-happy cheer that sent a chill down his spine.

"_Things,_" she chirped happily, and headed to the door. "I'll be back in a couple of hours. While I'm gone, please tell your friend _exactly_ why this was such a stupid idea. I'll be back by dinner. Bye!" She gave a final cheerful wave before exiting into the hallway, the apartment silent in the wake of her departure. For a moment neither of them spoke, just staring at the door. Then Izuku spun to face Uraraka, finally letting his horror explode.

"_What the hell were you thinking!?_"

* * *

**Uraraka lives and is NOT a prisoner of the Alliance! Whew! A lot of people were freaking out over her fate last chapter. And also Aizawa. I had WAY too much fun seeing everyone's reactions last time.  
**

**So many great little moments here. Aiko is finally ready to start playing a bigger role in the story. There are big plans for her, and plenty of mysteries surrounding her. **


	32. Chapter 32: Catch Up Time

Chapter 32

.::Catch Up Time::.

Falling into a void should be terrifying, but it only lasted a single second before Ochako hit the ground.

She had no idea what happened, just that one second she'd been inside an abandoned building and suddenly she was on her back watching as the portal closed. It had been a jarring change as the light vanished with it, leaving her alone in total silence as she scrambled to sit up.

Her first reaction had been panic, because she had no idea what happened. A black abyss surrounded her as far as the eye could see, a vast nothingness stretching in every direction. She would call it _dark_, but that didn't seem to fit properly because despite the blackness it didn't _feel_ dark, just—empty. When she looked down at herself her body seemed to glow, but maybe that was a trick of her eyes.

Before she could fully freak out the air _ripped_, the blackness tearing apart like a hole in fabric to reveal the room she'd spent the past twenty-four hours in. Her backpack flung inside, landing next to her and making her yelp in surprise. "Just sit tight for ten minutes," the woman's voice called, sounding just slightly distorted compared to before, and then the rip closed.

Ochako kind of wanted to panic again but she couldn't really do anything. She didn't know how long passed as she awkwardly hugged her bulky backpack to her chest, wishing she had some sort of clock. Finally the air ripped open again though, this time sounding behind her. Before she could turn hands grabbed her shoulders and ripped her out of the darkness and threw her onto a couch with a startled "_oof_."

By the time her eyes adjusted to the sudden light the woman stood over her, arms crossed over her chest. "_Please_ tell me you're not the girl Izuku saw last week," she said, and Ochako found herself wincing and suddenly feeling oddly sheepish. But more importantly—

"So you _do_ know Deku then?" she asked, looking at the woman with a renewed sense of resolve, and the woman hung her head with an exasperated groan.

The woman's name, Ochako quickly learned, was Aiko. She didn't tell Ochako much about herself, but she _did_ know Deku. And she also found Ochako's decision to run away to join the Alliance so she could find him to be one of the stupidest things she'd ever heard.

Apparently Deku agreed.

"Seriously, do you have any idea how dangerous that is!?" he asked, pacing around the apartment frantically. "This is even worse than when we went to save Kacchan! I'm literally _living_ with the League of Villains!"

"I know, and that's why I couldn't just leave you alone!" Ochako told him, a fire lighting in her eyes as she wrung the hem of her borrowed t-shirt. "You're _my_ Deku, the first person I've seen from our world in ages—and more than that, you're my _friend_. There's no way I can just leave you alone with _villains_!" Deku did not look particularly moved by her speech though, instead grimacing and looking away.

"Uraraka, I'm so grateful you went through all this trouble, but you don't understand. I'm safe, they won't hurt me, but this is really, _really_ dangerous for you."

"And so I should just ignore you and keep living a life of luxury while you're in danger all alone?" Ochako challenged, hands on her hips. Deku flinched, her words clearly striking a nerve as he turned back to her with a frown.

"That's not the point at all!" he protested. "They already have Kacchan and Shinsou locked up! Kidnapping's like their number one MO! And today, they—" He cut himself short and squeezed his eyes shut as he shrunk in on himself. Ochako didn't have a response to that, her brain stuck on the first part as she stared at him in shock.

"Wait, they have Bakugou and—and that kid from Gen-Ed?" she asked in growing disbelief and horror. Deku winced, immediately losing that brief bit of fight as his whole body sagged with something close to defeat.

"Y-yeah, they were already here when I woke up," he said slowly as he scratched at the back of his neck with a grimace. "I... It's not good, they're just—they're _prisoners_. I mean, up until yesterday Kacchan had these handcuffs like the ones at the Sports Festival award ceremony. And Shinsou has a _muzzle_." Uraraka winced at that, and Deku's frown deepened as he looked back to her. "But more than that, they don't remember me. They're not _our_ Bakugou and Shinsou. They're... this world's."

Ochako's heart sank, her eyes widening as she digested that. Suddenly so much of Deku's reaction to their meeting made sense, why he'd pushed her away so fiercely, but one thing stood out even more. "So we're still alone?" she asked quietly. She'd been afraid of that, afraid that no one _else_ would be here, so when she saw Izuku she'd forgotten all about the possibility.

The idea of meeting other classmates but not having them remember her, just being total _strangers_—it made her chest clench painfully, a heavy sense of loneliness washing over her.

"I thought I was," Izuku said softly. "That's why that day when I saw you and realized you _did_ remember me, I was really... surprised? And, happy? Like, I thought I was alone here, but then... I'm _not_. You were here too." He smiled faintly as he spoke, genuine relief flashing through his eyes.

Just as quickly as it appeared it vanished though, his expression growing heart-achingly somber once more as he averted his gaze. "But then I realized getting involved with me would be just... dangerous for you. And now—now..." He trailed off, his eyes slowly widening as he seemed to shrink on himself even more. Something about it made Ochako's heart sink with dread.

"Deku," she said slowly. "What happened?" He couldn't meet her eyes, but she could see tears start to form as he took a breath.

"They have Aizawa-sensei," he said, and Ochako felt like she'd just gotten punched in the gut. He took another breath, shakier than the first, and raised his head to meet her gaze with a look that could only be described as miserable. "They just brought him to the base today. I don't know if they'd just captured him or what, but—he looked really bad. They had him restrained and blindfolded and gagged, and-and then, he s-_slammed_ his head t-to the floor, a-a-and... A-a-and...!"

He fell silent as his voice wavered and shook, tearing his gaze away just as the tears starting to spill. Ochako could only look at him in silence, overcome by horror as she processed everything. She'd already realized Izuku would have it hard, being stuck with _villains_, but for it to be that extreme... Her heart twisted painfully, her hands clenching at her sides as she took a breath.

"Deku," she said, keeping her voice steady and firm as she gazed at him. "That's _why_ I can't leave you now." He looked up at her at that, his nose red and eyes shiny and wet, and she met his gaze squarely as she continued. "I can't just sit around while you're dealing with all of this on your own. You're my best friend, and I'm not going to leave you to deal with this on your own when I can help."

"B-but—"

"But _nothing_!" she interrupted, stamping her foot with a scowl. "Midoriya Izuku, you are my best friend and a good person. You're the most heroic person in all of Class 1-A, and you do _not_ deserve to deal with this all alone!" She crossed the gap and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug that made him stiffen. "I don't know what I can do, but we're both stuck in this stupid, awful, no-sense world! So I don't care how dangerous it is, I already made up my mind and ran away from home so we're sticking together from now on! Got it?"

Deku stood limply in her arms for a moment, but she could hear his breathing begin to pick up and then water seemed to explode onto her as he burst into tears. She hugged him tighter as he returned the embrace and cried into her shoulder, a small smile touching her lips as she felt his tears soak through her sleeve. Well, at least she was still wet from the shower anyway.

The world might feel like it's falling apart and things might be grimmer than ever, but this was the one thing that finally felt _right_.

* * *

Izuku and Uraraka spent a full hour just catching each other up on their respective lives. Izuku ended up having a lot more to contribute than Uraraka, just by virtue of being stuck with the League of Villains. Talking about everything with Shinsou and Bakugou left him feeling miserable, but finally being able to discuss it with someone who knew _everything_ filled him with relief.

While her life hadn't been as eventful, Uraraka had some major news of her own.

"You think Ashido's here too?" Izuku gasped, and Uraraka bobbed her head with a face full of firm conviction.

"I'm sure of it!" she declared resolutely. "At the very least, she's _an_ Ashido. But she only made her profile the day before I made mine—_and_ she used the name Alien Queen Pink. That's _way_ too much to be just a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I do," Izuku agreed with a nod and frown.

"So, it might not just be us then," Uraraka said, and the weight of those words hit him all at once. Just knowing Uraraka was there had been shocking enough, but to hear that _more_ of their classmates might have been pulled into it too? The realization filled him with equal parts hope and horror.

Izuku had seen firsthand just how screwed up this world could be. He and Uraraka had gotten lucky and were in relatively safe positions, but the same couldn't be said for their other classmates. If Kacchan had been brought over, who knows how he would have reacted to waking up as a prisoner of the League of Villains? It probably wouldn't even be obvious at first that he'd ended up in another dimension, and if he'd said something that let it slip that he might be from another world...

The mere thought left him chilled.

"I don't think I can contact her right now though," Uraraka continued, breaking him from his thoughts as she picked up a phone lying on the coffee table. She swiped her finger to unlock it and started tapping away as she explained, "Aiko lended me a spare phone she had so I could log into FacePage and talk to her. But when I did, I found this." She turned the phone's screen to him, showing a message on the site.

'_Girl are u okay? A couple of heroes & a detective just came here asking about you! Theyre all SUPER worried and said you're in BIG danger! Message me ASAP when ur safe!_'

Izuku's stomach flipped as he read it. "So they managed to track her down?" he asked worriedly. "Wait, doesn't that mean they might be able to track down you through _this_ phone?"

"I thought that too at first, but Aiko said it'd be fine," Uraraka said, putting the phone back into sleep. "Apparently FacePage is super secure in this world so it's impossible to track people down, and this phone can't be tracked anyway?" She shrugged. "I don't know the full specifics, but she didn't seem too worried. When I told her I thought I knew who Alien Queen Pink was, she said the heroes probably used a Quirk on my phone and saw her face."

"That's... weirdly specific." Izuku frowned, and Ochako shrugged again, wringing the hem of her too-long shirt.

"Y-yeah, I thought so too... But she seemed really calm about it so I guess it's not bad. Oh, but also!" She perked up and turned to him again. "I almost forgot! I met Dabi!"

"_What?_" Izuku gasped, face rapidly paling. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

"No, he's actually... really nice in this world?" Uraraka frowned slightly, shrugging her shoulders as she looked away. Izuku listened in growing shock as she then described their brief encounter, starting with leading her to an abandoned office building all the way to telling her about Nabu and giving her money to rent a motel room.

"He gave me a piece of paper with his phone number at the end," she finished. "I might call him later and let him know I'm okay, but I don't want to use Aiko's phone." Izuku frowned, falling deep into thought.

"If he knows the Alliance is in Nabu, then he must know someone there," he mumbled. "I haven't seen or heard anything about him though, so I don't think he's a member. And I've never heard about him having a brother. Is his brother alive in our world? Is that tied to why he's a villain?"

"That's what I wondered!" Uraraka chimed in, startling Izuku. Usually his friends didn't pay much attention to his mumbling anymore, let alone _respond_. It made sense she'd do it this time though, this was a situation where they needed to pool all the information they could. As he looked at her she added heatedly, "And the way he talked, Yuki isn't his real name. So I don't know why he'd go by that."

Izuku frowned then, this new information making his brain race. He opened his mouth but stopped short, glancing at the clock on the wall. Aiko had been gone for a while now, and it was only a matter of time until she returned. "...Let's talk more in my room," he suggested, and Uraraka frowned as she nodded in agreement.

According to Aiko, his room would be in the apartment next door. Looking back that was pretty weird, because she didn't say _which_ apartment and this didn't seem to be a corner apartment. That also meant she owned at _least_ two apartments, which surprised him. What did the neighbors think?

When they stepped into the hallway though he realized quickly that the neighbors wouldn't matter, because they didn't _have_ any. The hallway was a lot more dilapidated than Aiko's apartment, the paint on the walls and doors chipped and fading and the floor covered in scuff marks. While it didn't have any dust or cobwebs, it took one look to realize the building had to be largely uninhabited. He wouldn't have guessed _any_ of the apartments had running water or electricity based on this hallway alone.

The apartment to their right had its door hanging off its hinges, and they took one look and silently went to check on the left one instead. The door was unlocked, and after entering it seemed to be the one Aiko had indicated. It had a similar color scheme to the other one, much warmer and cozier than the empty hallway. Books had been stacked on top of the coffee table, and he could see photographs and a few hero posters lining the wall, making him smile.

"Guess this is the place," Uraraka declared, heading for a door that mirrored the bedroom door from the other apartment. "Come on, I bet this is your..." She trailed off as she opened the door and stood, and Izuku frowned as he joined her only to do a near double-take.

He'd expected his room to be a typical guest room, but this one was filled with even more hero merchandise than his room at the League. Posters covered every inch of the walls, books fought figurines for space on the shelves, and even the bedspread had a bunch of different heroes on it. It reminded him almost of his actual room—just with more variety than All Might.

And on that note, this room _did_ have All Might merchandise. Not as much as his _actual_ room of course, but still a fair amount of figurines.

His jaw dropped, honestly stunned. He thought he'd only visited occasionally, but _clearly_ he spent a lot more time here than he originally thought.

For a long moment neither of them spoke, just staring at the room. Uraraka recovered from her shock first. "Well, it's _definitely_ your room," she declared with a sheepish smile, and Izuku felt a sudden urge to groan and hide his face.

* * *

Seiko was bored.

_Bored_ might not be the right term, actually. There just wasn't anything interesting happening at the Alliance headquarters right now.

The raid had been interesting enough to watch. Shigaraki had been planning for it for some time now; that other group had been slowly building its influence, focusing more on the deeper parts of the underworld. They had no public reputation just yet, choosing to be much more discreet in its growth and activity than the Alliance, but the fact they chose to operate out of Nabu had irritated him.

Seiko did not help in the raid. She hid in the shadows as she watched the Alliance cut through the nameless grunts. The goriest takedowns came from Magne and Slycer, where Magne would magnetize people and draw them towards her where Slycer waited to tear them apart. His Quirk let him turn any part of his body into sharp, blade-like things, and he'd laughed as his hair and fingers sliced through the villains. Mr. Compress did a cleaner job, capturing people in his marbles to simply crush, while Toga took her time leeching blood from the few people she found particularly attractive.

It had been interesting for a while but the novelty soon faded, and Seiko went to find Shigaraki. Surprisingly enough, he was not confronting the rival leader like she expected, but instead standing in the door of a cell where a black-haired man was bound on the floor staring at him wide-eyed. _Interesting._

"Eraserhead, how good to see you," he'd said.

_Very_ interesting.

And that had been when Seiko left.

The others had been mostly done with their assault by that point, so they'd probably be leaving soon. She didn't really care for Kurogiri's Quirk, and she would prefer to get back before they did so she had to leave first. She had a feeling their return itself would be entertaining, so she wanted to be present for that. Her ability did not allow for instantaneous travel like Kurogiri, but it was still faster than conventional means, so it took only about ten minutes to cross the city.

Upon returning to the base she had quickly determined Izuku had taken Bakugou to Hijack's cell for the day, probably to plan something. While pondering if she should check on them or randomly pop in to spook him (Izuku had the most amusing reactions when he didn't remember her, and she thought Bakugou might too), she noticed Kurogiri open a portal near the third prison block and decided to go watch that instead.

It _had_ been interesting, especially when Izuku stumbled upon the scene. Shigaraki had been rather annoyed when he realized his little brother had witnessed his violence against one of the heroes Izuku so dearly idolized, and had promptly called on Kurogiri to send the boy to Aiko's apartment so he could spend the rest of the day sulking in peace. After that, Seiko decided to be nice and let Toga know Bakugou was in Hijack's cell so she helpfully smuggle Bakugou back to his own room and avoid getting in trouble.

And now, Seiko had nothing interesting to watch until the fallout from Shigaraki's little tantrum arrived.

_Slam._

Ah, there it was.

Aiko did not storm into the bar, nor did she skip happily or saunter or cartwheel or levitate or any other notable deviation from a standard walking pattern. She walked inside like a perfectly normal human being, radiating an aura of sunshine and happiness as she plopped onto a stool next to where Shigaraki hunched over one of his consoles. She folded her hands under her chin as she smiled at him, her head tilting to the side.

"Tomura-chan," she greeted, perfectly sweet and cheerful, "Why didn't you tell me you guys captured Izu's childhood friend?"

At those words, the nearest villains quickly scrambled out of their seats and cleared the area save for Shigaraki and Kurogiri. This was clearly Aiko on the warpath, trying to restrain the urge to tear apart everyone in a five foot radius.

Seiko just inclined her head from her spot at the table in the far corner. So she came because she found out about Bakugou then? _Interesting._

"I don't need to tell you _everything_," Shigaraiki scoffed. He didn't bother to put down the game console or look up, clearly confident she wouldn't murder him in cold blood. "What's the big deal, anyway?"

At that point Aiko grabbed the console and yanked it out of his hands, tossing it over her shoulder with that perfectly pleasant smile never faltering. Shigaraki made an amusingly sour face as he watched it sail halfway across the room, the console only getting saved from a gruesome fate at the last second when Kurogiri opened a small portal under it. Seiko suspected he did it more to save the table it would have damaged by the impact, judging by his tired sigh.

"Let me rephrase that," Aiko said cheerfully, and then her smile vanished. Her eyes turned almost perfectly blank as she scowled at him, the air itself growing heavy and oppressive. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me you captured Bakugou Katsuki?"

To his credit Shigaraki actually flinched at the change in atmosphere, his lips pulling into a scowl as he met her gaze. "Why the hell would _that_ matter? Do you actually _know_ the kid!?"

Aiko just gave him a noticeably sour look, clearly at the limits of her patience. "Do me a favor and stop kidnapping kids," she said instead. "I know you guys like recruiting through kidnapping, and I totally get why you captured Hijack. The kid's a vigilante who stuck his nose where he shouldn't have. But no more recruiting random civilian kids through kidnapping. Got it?"

Shigaraki scoffed, scratching at his neck. "You still care about that?" Aiko's hand shot out to grab his wrist, yanking it away from his neck.

"Tomura. I really don't care what the Alliance does most of the time. As long as you guys don't go into full-blown human trafficking or mass-murder children, I _really_ don't care. I gave up the right to claim any moral higher ground years ago. But this?"

_Crack._

"This is the one line I will not let you cross."

Shigaraki hissed as she released his wrist, clutching at it with his other hand as it flopped. Aiko got off the stool with a scowl, shoving her hands in her pockets as she headed for the door. "I am going to leave and go for a walk before I try to murder you. Do _not_ follow me."

Dead silence hung in the air as she stalked out, her eyes pointedly flicking Seiko's way at the last sentence. When the door closed Seiko let herself fall into the shadows, heading deeper into the base for now.

There was no point listening to Shigaraki gripe about Aiko's anger while Kurogiri tended to his wrist. She contemplated following Aiko but the woman would probably lash out at her. She most likely intended to go release some of her pent-up frustration in some abandoned building. Not interesting.

Seiko briefly contemplated going to Aiko's apartment instead to check on Izuku, but promptly dismissed the thought. Aiko had requested Seiko never visit her apartment unless invited, a request Seiko respected. Driving people to mental breakdowns could be entertaining, but afterwards they tended to lose all motivation and energy and become empty shells. Much less interesting in the long run.

What a shame, she was curious to see how he felt about Eraserhead. He had looked so distressed before Kurogiri teleported him away, and Aiko was hardly good at calming people down. It was always so funny, how the woman could blend into nearly any crowd and charm people without ever raising suspicion, yet utterly failed in basic social graces.

Seiko emerged from the shadows outside the hero's cell, simply staring at the door with a speculative look. She could easily go inside, but she'd rather not. There wouldn't be much to see anyway, the villains had left the man alone for the time being and he was probably just trying to rest in anticipation of whatever they had planned for him. No, the true entertainment would come from everyone else's reactions to his presence.

A shame Izuku hadn't mentioned Eraserhead's presence to Aiko. The thought of how the woman would react when she inevitably found out made a small smile twitch on Seiko's lips, a brief flicker of anticipation that quickly vanished as she retreated into the shadows once more.

The next few days would certainly be interesting.

* * *

**This is the first time I've ever written Seiko's POV. She is very... other. This should clear up some stuff about how Aizawa got into this mess. (And yes, I gave one of the villain OCs a knife hand-esque Quirk. I usually hate that Quirk because that's just so weirdly specific and common, but I defend myself by making it closer to a Hardening-type Quirk that sharpens stuff instead of just converting his hands into knives. Slycer probably won't be mentioned again anyway though.)**

**Also, I'm amused that almost everyone last time predicted Aiko would be talking to Shigaraki about Izuku or something else bad for Izuku. I don't think anyone guessed she'd be mad at HIM.**

**A****nother glimpse into my writing process: originally this chapter only had Uraraka's POV, the part with Aiko and one other scene that got cut. The conversation from Izuku's end happened the next time, but I decided to add in the first part of it here for the sake of better pacing. These next few chapters are just full of me rearranging segments to accomplish what I need to. I think I finally got a handle on it though, so I might post the next chapter later this week. We'll see!  
**

**Question for next time: What do you think Mic is doing right now? (Guy's been worried sick about Aizawa and still has no idea what's up with him. We won't see him again for a while yet, but it's fun to ask.)  
**


	33. Chapter 33: Super Happy Funtime Talks

Chapter 33

.::Super Happy Funtime Talks::.

"Well, it's kinda nice seeing all these heroes at least."

"Y-yeah, it is." Izuku's face still felt hot with embarrassment as he and Uraraka awkwardly stood in the middle of his counterpart's bedroom. Though it technically wasn't _his_ bedroom, he still felt oddly awkward having her there. The amount of hero merchandise definitely made it feel like his room though, giving him the weirdest sense of déjà vu and unfamiliarity.

His counterpart clearly spent a lot of time here, judging by the fact the desk had a second laptop just plastered in All Might stickers and a golden-age All Might hoodie hanging on the back of the chair. He couldn't imagine Shigaraki ever allowing _either_ of those things to pass. Between that and everything else, it seemed like his counterpart probably used this room as a second home for all his hero merchandise that Shigaraki might not approve of.

There was an open door revealing a bathroom, and he heard Uraraka stifle a giggle as they both spied an obviously Pro Hero-themed soap container by the sink. He didn't even _recognize_ the Pro, it must be someone specific to this world, but Izuku's face still flushed even redder as he hurriedly closed the bathroom door. In the process he spied a Selkie shower head, making him wince and grimace. He didn't go _that_ far in their world!

When he turned around he found Uraraka staring at the bedside table, and he quickly joined her while internally cringing. He didn't even remember any of the stuff here, but he already felt some _really_ bad second-hand embarrassment and felt a desperate need to divert her attention. "A-anyways! This is interesting, but we should..." He trailed off as he glanced at the table, freezing in place as he finally saw what held her attention.

A photograph of him and his parents sat below the Endeavor-themed lamp, a bright smile on their faces. Once again he didn't remember this picture, but it looked to be a New Year's shrine visit judging by their clothing and background. He recognized the yukata he wore as the one he'd worn when he was eight, making his breath catch.

"Oh," he said faintly. His dad couldn't always visit during New Year's, so he'd probably flown back to America not long afterwards. This was probably the last photo he'd taken with his parents in this world.

As he stared at it he noticed Uraraka fidgeting in the corner of his eye, biting her lip. "...Deku, I found an article about you running away," she said, and he winced. He hadn't looked up any articles about his parents' deaths or him running away, but he had a feeling they would harp on one particular fact. And sure enough, she confirmed it with her next words. "It said you were... It—it called you _Quirkless_."

Izuku bit his lip as he suppressed a reflexive wince, looking away with a tight feeling in his chest. Uraraka was one of his best friends and knew he was a relatively "late bloomer," but he'd never gone into full detail about growing up Quirkless. Thinking about those times always left a bad taste in his mouth, and he'd hoped he'd never have to address it with his friends. He had a Quirk now after all, had gotten into the school of his dreams. The days of being a Quirkless Deku was in the past.

But that didn't mean the same applied here.

"Deku," she said. "I know you said you're a late bloomer, and your Quirk came in _really_ late, but..." She trailed off, clearly uncertain on how to phrase her question, and he could feel his heart beating faster. He could just reinforce the story. Claim his Quirk had been too strong to fully manifest until later in life when his body could withstand it—that had been the story he and All Might had devised after they'd talked to Bakugou, in case anyone else brought up his background.

But lying to Uraraka right now—even about a secret as important all One For All—it left him feeling _sick_. Right now, every piece of information was worth its weight in gold, and he didn't want to lie to her about _anything_.

"...Can we not talk about it?" he asked meekly. He hated to avoid the question, even if she hadn't asked yet, but he also didn't want to lie straight to her face. This was the only compromise he could think of.

Uraraka frowned, but to his relief nodded her head. "Okay, fine," she relented, and Izuku relaxed. "But—" Dang it, he thought she'd agreed to drop it! " —do... do you _have_ a Quirk, here?"

The question made him pause, turning to look at her in surprise. Uraraka bit her lip as she looked away, drumming her fingers together. "It's just, I noticed earlier my Quirk's not as strong as I remember. I get nauseous way more easily, like how it was before I went to UA and started training it more, and I think... I think I have _other_ Ochaco's Quirk, not mine. So..."

She trailed off and gave an awkward shrug, still not looking at him, and Izuku frowned. He had been trying not to think on it too hard, because he didn't know if his other self had One For All or if it just transferred with him. He _still_ didn't know, but the possibility of it impacting _other_ people's Quirks hadn't occurred to him. His gaze flickered to his hand, sparks flickering as he clenched it into a fist.

"I have it," he said slowly, and saw her perk up. "But... my control's not as good. My body isn't as strong either, so it can't take as much as it can back home." He lowered his hand and looked at her. "The Alliance doesn't know I have it. Shigaraki still thinks I'm Quirkless. Seiko _might_ know," he added, grimacing at the thought that he could never tell when she might be watching, "but I don't think she'd tell anyone."

Hopefully not, but he couldn't be sure. His uncertainty must have shown on his face, because Uraraka matched his grimace with one of her own. "She's that shadow girl you mentioned, right?" she asked, and Izuku just nodded. "Why do you think she hangs out with the Alliance?"

"I really have no idea," he groaned. "I kinda wonder if she might be assigned to watch me..." He was so glad that Aiko had said Seiko wouldn't come to this apartment. He'd called out to her a couple times while talking to Uraraka, just to make sure she might not be hiding and listening in, and so far Aiko seemed to be right. He had the distinct feeling Seiko would show herself if he called her name no matter who Izuku was with, if only to see their reactions to her suddenly appearing.

He pushed the thought away for now and shook his head. "But we're getting off-topic. We need to figure out a plan." Uraraka straightened up at that, her eyes shining.

"I am totally willing to join the Villain Alliance!" she declared, a bright fire in her eyes.

"Absolutely not!" Izuku yelped, and she slumped dejectedly. "I already told you how dangerous it is—"

"Which is why I can't leave you alone there!" Uraraka cut in, and Izuku wanted to groan.

"You'll probably be locked up until they feel like they can trust you!" he countered, and _that_ shut her up, looking almost sheepish as he continued. "They're not going to just believe some random girl wants to join out of the blue. Kacchan and Shinsou are already locked up, and we JUST convinced Shigaraki to let Kacchan walk around the base. With a _bomb on his ankle_," he added, his voice rising just _slightly_ on the last part. "Do _you_ want a bomb wrapped around your ankle?"

"...No," Uraraka mumbled, averting her gaze in embarrassment, and Izuku sighed as he felt his shoulders slump. The whole explosive anklets thing still left him wildly uneasy and worried for his friends, and he really didn't need a _third_ friend wandering around with one too. He still had no idea how to remove the stupid things.

"You'll be more useful outside anyway," he said, and saw her perk up at that. "Right now I can't really leave unless Kurogiri warps me out, and I can't run away either, so I'm really limited on what I can do. You've got a lot more freedom with me, so you can do stuff I can't. And I never even thought to look for everyone's FacePage profiles!" he added. "You'd probably be way better at finding everyone else than I am."

"FacePage was pretty obvious though," Uraraka deflected bashfully. "And Ashido's the only one I could find. You'd probably be able to find more people if you looked hard enough."

"I don't have the time to look for people on social media though," Izuku pointed out. "I'm busy enough trying to help Kacchan and Shinsou, and figure out an escape plan. And, and now that they've captured Aizawa-sensei..." He trailed off, a cold horror washing over him once more at the thought of his teacher. Aizawa-sensei, who was now locked up in a cell so the Alliance could do who knows what with him.

"Deku, keep it together!" Uraraka scolded, startling him before his thoughts could spiral. She had that fiery look in her eyes again, grabbing his shoulders while keeping one finger lifted on each hand. "Now that you know he's there, they can't kill or hurt him! He's going to be fine!"

Izuku wasn't so sure, but when he opened his mouth to say as much something else occurred to him. "_Aiko has his goggles,_" he remembered abruptly, and _that_ startled her enough to accidentally let the last fingers lower onto his shoulders. They both yelped as Izuku started floating, and Uraraka squeaked as she yanked her hands away. The loss of her hands left Izuku without an anchor, now rising freely towards the ceiling.

At that moment there was a knock on the door, and they both turned to see Aiko open it and peek inside. "Hey, sorry if I'm interrupting but—" She stopped as she saw Izuku floating next to the ceiling, both teenagers looking relatively stunned as they stared at her.

For a long moment no one spoke or moved, save for Izuku who continued to rise until his back pressed against the ceiling. He couldn't tell what Aiko was thinking as she looked at him, her expression largely blank and her eyes impossible to read, but then she cocked her head to the side. "Huh," she said. "I thought you of all people would know to be careful around a five-point touch Quirk by now."

That snapped Uraraka out of her shocked stupor, and her face flared as she quickly pressed her fingers together to release her Quirk. Fortunately Izuku had floated towards the bed, and he landed on the mattress with a loud "_oof._" Aiko just laughed as he scrambled to get up, feeling his face flush.

"I am _so_ sorry!" Uraraka apologized. "He said something that surprised me and my fingers slipped—"

"It's okay," Aiko cut in with a grin. "You're a kid, Quirk slips happen. And that looks like a fun one. What is it, floating? Reducing weight? Zero gravity?"

"...The last one," Uraraka confirmed, and Aiko lit up.

"Really? That _is_ a fun one! Ah, I'm kinda jealous," she mused, a dreamy smile on her face. "I haven't been flying in _years_. I might want you to try it on me sometime. Just don't use it on him outside, please."

"I won't," Uraraka promised, and Aiko smiled.

"Anyways, I just wanted to let you guys know I'm back and check what you wanted for dinner. I was thinking katsudon."

"Katsudon?" Izuku repeated, perking up, and Aiko flashed him a teasing smirk.

"Don't you dare say you forgot how much you like it," she teased. "You've got a friend over for the first time in forever so we should eat something other than takeout. I'm not the best cook, but we have the stuff so I figure we might as well go all out." Izuku found himself nodding, a smile spreading across his face naturally.

"Yeah... Thanks, Aiko-nee." Once again she looked briefly surprised before beaming at him, and she darted into the room to ruffle his hair.

"You called me Aiko-nee again," she all but squealed as he squawked and ducked away, and the faux-stars in her eyes were _definitely_ twinkling now. Her smile faded to something smaller but still warm and happy as she turned to Uraraka. "Does katsudon work for you? Any allergies I need to know about?"

"N-no thanks, I'm good with katsudon. And no allergies, either." Uraraka shook her head rapidly, and Aiko nodded as she headed to the bedroom door.

"Alright, I'm gonna get started. The ingredients are in the apartment next door, so if you want to keep talking I'll just call you over when it's done. Bye!" She gave a cheery wave before closing the door, once again leaving them in silence for a full moment. Then Uraraka whirled on Izuku, her face filled with panic.

"_She has Aizawa-sensei's goggles?_" she hissed, voice pitched low in a frantic whisper full of anxiety, and Izuku winced at the reminder.

"Yeah, she was wearing them around her neck the first time we met!" he confirmed with a nod, his own voice equally hushed and verging on hysterics. "I didn't notice until right before I left, but those were _definitely_ his goggles and it's super freaky!"

"Why does she have them!? Do they know each other?"

"I don't know! I didn't want to think about it because I didn't know if they were friends or it was a trophy or she killed him or what! I didn't even know Aizawa-sensei was alive until I saw him today!" Honestly between those goggles and Mic's sign-off message for his "favorite listener," Izuku had kind of assumed the worst. Another reason to not think about it.

"Does she know he's there?" Uraraka asked frantically, and he froze.

"I don't know," he realized in horror. He hadn't mentioned _which_ hero he'd seen while telling her about him, not wanting to risk slipping and using his name when he might not be supposed to recognize Eraserhead on sight. Now he realized that might have been for the best. If she had Aizawa's goggles, there had to be _some_ history between them. "She didn't seem to know Kacchan was there until I told her today, so she might not pay attention to the prisoners."

"She might _now_ though!" Uraraka pointed out, and he couldn't help it. He _whimpered_, making her flinch in surprise.

"L-let's just, not tell her," he decided shakily. "For... as long as we can." Uraraka just nodded, both of them stewing in silent panic at the thought of her finding out. Izuku legitimately had no idea how Aiko would react, she didn't even have a counterpart from their own world to use as a reference point. He could only hope Aizawa would be long gone before she ever found out.

That last thought made him take a deep breath, steeling his resolve. "Aizawa-sensei _definitely_ won't be able to escape on his own," he said slowly. "Which means _we_ have to get him out." Uraraka looked at him in surprise before her expression filled with resolve, nodding in agreement.

Looks like their escape plan just got a little more complicated.

* * *

"Do we _have_ to go?"

"Come on Tamaki, it'll be fine! I promise!" Mirio beamed at his best friend, who had a rather large grimace on his face. "The Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department is full of nice people!"

"I can't believe you actually remember that name," Tamaki groaned, and Mirio just laughed as he turned forward, digital tablet in hand. The pair had been interns and students at Nighteye Agency for the past three years along with a few others, and had gotten to know most of the Pro Heroes there pretty well. Of course that included everyone on the General Analysis Team, even if they didn't go there that often.

Honestly, Mirio _loved_ visiting their department. Everyone there was nice just like the rest of the agency, and Figment's Quirk made every visit full of surprises. The only real issue he could see was their taste décor. Tamaki whimpered as the double doors leading to the office space came into sight, both decorated by large eyes drawn with dripping paint, cartoon ghosts, and spray-painted summoning circles.

They _really_ embraced the "Supernatural ESP Investigation" part of their nickname.

"Come on, it'll be fine!" Mirio said, flashing his friend a reassuring smile. "I bet we'll walk in and find cotton candy clouds!" Tamaki shot him a doubtful look, but Mirio just pushed open the double doors with a wide grin. "See—uh..."

His smile vanished as the office came into sight. Thick, pale purplish haze drifted around the space, the furniture little more than dark silhouettes. The lights had been put on their dimmest setting, only adding to the ethereal quality of the space. Behind him Mirio heard Tamaki whimper again, scooting closer to him while he just stared at the undeniably spooky area blankly.

"...Huh," Mirio said finally. "This is definitely spookier than usual."

"C-can we just come back later?" Tamaki asked shakily, but Mirio shook his head.

"Nope! We're heroes Tamaki, we can't let a little mist scare us off!" He stepped into the department, Tamaki scrambling to follow after him. Mirio had to admit the mist was a bit unsettling though, and stepping into the room only amplified the effect. Translucent figures seemed to shift in the distance, movement constant in the corners of their eyes. Usually Figment went with more fun and abstract stuff, but this seemed undeniably eerie.

"_Please_, Mirio?" Tamaki whined quietly, and he was tempted to agree, but they had a job to do.

"In a minute," he said, and then called, "Mail, are you here?"

At that moment the mist directly next to them _warped_, a black void appearing. A ghostly head covered in blood emerged, pale white-orange eyes glowing amongst the darkness. "_Yesssss?_" the figure asked, lips parting to reveal a ghastly smile full of gleaming white teeth, and Tamaki _screamed_. Even Mirio jumped back in alarm and dropped the tablet before quickly assuming a fighting stance, unintentionally activating his Quirk in his surprise and...

Making all his clothes fall off.

For a moment all was silent, everyone just staring at him. Then the newcomer burst out laughing, and Tamaki covered his face while Mirio rushed to clothe himself. "Oh my gosh, that is amazing!" Mail cackled.

"Why is your face covered in blood," Tamaki muttered behind his hands, and Mail grinned at him, his teeth still seeming to glow.

"Figment and I are trying something new. We got a tip-off about a drug trade-off tonight at midnight, and it's at a _cemetery_." He downright _cackled_, clearly amused. "If this is how you reacted, those guys are going to _flip_."

"Glad to hear you're having fun!" Mirio said as he pulled up his pants, and he meant it. He loved that the General Analysis Team members could balance work and fun so well, they knew how to keep their spirits up even when things were dark and grim. Figment's reports were always a blast to read. Still, Mirio had to worry about one thing. "Are _you_ allowed to go though? You don't have a license, do you?"

"Who's gonna stop me?" Mail asked with a grin, and—well, hard to argue with that. "Anyways, you guys came here for a reason, right?"

"Yeah," Mirio confirmed, picking up the tablet. Fortunately it wasn't damaged by the drop, built from rather sturdy materials so it could hold up if ever taken to the field, and he quickly unlocked. "You know how Sir has us on recruitment duty, right?"

"Yep," Mail said with a wry smile. "Hadou dragged you to every department to introduce you as the new Heads of Recruitment." Mirio laughed at the memory while Tamaki just groaned in embarrassment. The three of them had been given the job of researching prospective recruits who could be good Pro Heroes, whether by looking at middle schools or seeing if any students showed up in news stories. "Did you find some good leads then?"

"Maybe," Mirio replied. "We found a couple vigilantes. They seem to travel around a bit and keep a low profile, but we've managed to make some connections on some cases. We even found an article about them, see!" He pulled up the article in question and turned the screen to show Mail.

Mail hummed as he studied it, lightly floating over and tilting his head. "That is certainly a lot of kanji," he said, and Mirio looked at him in confusion for a second.

"You still can't read many kanji, can you?" Tamaki asked, and _oh right_. Mirio honestly forgot Mail never learned to read Japanese, he was verbally fluent after all.

"I think I finally learned to read one thousand," Mail replied wryly, clearly amused by Mirio's forgetfulness. "I am finally, after sixteen years, at the level of an elementary school graduate. Though I'm pretty sure elementary school students don't know words like '_autopsy_' or '_kidnapping_,'" he added with an eye roll.

"Good for you!" Mirio laughed awkwardly, turning the tablet back to himself. "Well, the article doesn't really matter I guess. So they're a duo, right? No names or costumes or anything like that, but we think they've been around for a couple years now. The police sent our agency security footage from a couple of their fights, which is how we found the pattern, and we think they might be good recruits. If they're, you know, teens."

"We don't even know their Quirks though," Tamaki added while Mirio searched for the footage in question. "They seem to have really good gear, and also some training."

"So you want my opinion on them?" Mail guessed, and Mirio nodded.

"Yep! You have more experience with this stuff. We still don't know if they're _actually_ teenagers, but we thought maybe you could tell." By that point he'd pulled up the most recent video footage, and turned the screen to show Mail.

This one showed a rather petite man walking down an empty side street, unaware of a reptilian-Quirked man hiding in an alleyway out of his line of view but in view of the camera. Once he reached that alley, the bulky man jumped out to attack him, frills expanding around his neck to fan either side of his face as a long tongue shot out. The petite man startled enough to fall backwards, and the attacker moved to pounce on him.

At that point he suddenly turned his head to the side and froze before collapsing to the ground limply. At that exact moment someone in a long, dark-colored coat with the hood up suddenly appeared in frame, having jumped from a rooftop based on the angle, and landed right on his back. The man gave a full-body flinch before going limp again, and the newcomer quickly grabbed his arms and tied his wrists with zip ties.

At the same time another figure rushed into the camera's line of view, also wearing a hooded coat, and helped the victim to his feet. The trio made their escape, and then the video cut to another camera where the victim could be seen on his phone, presumably calling police.

Mail floated ever closer to the screen as the fight played out, a critical gleam in his eye. "Can't say their age, but they're probably teens," he murmured once the fight finished. "Their style is really rough, but there's definitely experience behind it. They planned out the ambush pretty well. You were right about them being trained, too, that one landed on the guy's back at just the right point to avoid permanently injuring him. I'd say they're on par with how first-year hero students used to be."

His analysis made Mirio and Tamaki exchange wide-eyed looks. "You got all that from one fight?" Tamaki asked.

"Amajiki, I had to do this stuff for a living," Mail replied with a shrug. "Being able to pick apart opponents' skill levels at a glance was a literal life or death scenario for me." The reminder quickly sobered their moods, and it probably showed on their faces because Mail smiled. "That's all in the past though. But yeah, I'd say you're right about these two being teens."

"Any ideas on their Quirks?" Mirio asked.

"The one that jumped down definitely has some sort of physical enhancement going on, probably centered around the legs given the decision to jump down from a rooftop. The other one probably has some sort of paralysis Quirk. The guy turned his head before going all limp, so it's sight-based. Triggered by eye contact, maybe."

"That's what we thought," Mirio said, pulling up another video. This one showed a similar ambush. A purse snatcher darting down a largely empty street while his victim chased him, towards where two coated figures were walking. As they got closer he suddenly went limp, and the two lunged at him immediately. The effects of the paralysis wore off quickly and he spit some kind of acid. One of them darted to the side to dodge it, the other leaped onto the nearby wall and then used it as a springboard to dive at him and knock him down.

Mail gave a whistle of appreciation as the other one sprung forward to grab him by the hair, keeping a tight grip on it to prevent him from turning his head as the duo quickly tied his arms. "Yep, definitely some sort of training. Most people wouldn't think to immobilize the head in that situation even with the acid spit. I'd say these two were taught how to handle a lot of Quirks. You guys are right, they'd _definitely_ be good recruits."

Mirio beamed as he listened, growing more excited. "We should pass this on to Sir right away!" he declared, and Mail smirked.

"Might want to wait until tomorrow. He's in a meeting with Lady of the Night, Centipeder and Figment about that drug bust tonight," he informed them, and Mirio quickly lost his steam. "But since you're here anyway, any chance you've got the address for those two kids in Kamino?"

"You mean the first-years who made that big splash on Friday?" Mirio asked, but he'd already turned the tablet around. "Yeah, lemme pull up their file for you real quick."

"Why do you want to know?" Tamaki asked while Mirio searched for it. "You don't usually get involved in recruiting..."

"Oracle's on guard duty, and I want to drop in on him," Mail replied. "It's been a while since I saw him." Tamaki nodded in understanding with a quiet "_ah_" while Mirio beamed.

"You're all really close, huh?" he asked, switching over to a map to input the address. A red line quickly appeared on the streets, connecting two locations. "Here, this is how you get their apartment building from the train station. Is that good enough?"

Mail floated over to peer at the screen over Mirio's shoulder, and quickly nodded. "Yep, that's perfect. Thanks Togata." Mirio grinned at him and nodded as he closed the map. While Mail might not be able to read most Japanese, he had a reputation for a scarily impressive memory. Most of the agency used him as a back-up record keeper, reading files to him so he could mentally store the information. It was actually faster to ask him to remember information than to search for the files in question.

"Are you going to scare him too?" Tamaki asked flatly, and Mail grinned, his teeth still seeming to glow and his face still streaked with blood. Mirio had to shudder at that, it looked _really_ disturbing.

"Maybe. It's a brother's job to pester every sibling in equal measures, right?" He paused then, looking at Mirio before breaking into an even _bigger_ grin before turning around. "Figment, this is _genius_! We're gonna give those guys heart attacks!"

"Freaking _yes_!" Figment cheered from somewhere they couldn't see. "We're gonna need body bags!" As Mail vanished back into the haze Mirio and Tamaki exchanged looks.

"...I think I feel bad for the villains," Mirio said.

"This is officially the scariest combo in the entire agency," Tamaki agreed solemnly, and the pair headed back to the interns' quarters. Hopefully tomorrow they'd be able to give Sir some good news, and get started on hunting down the mysterious vigilante duo. It had been a while since they got someone new, and Mirio had high hopes for them.

* * *

**(Later that night, Mail's cackling could be heard all around the spooky graveyard as police carted away the crying ****drug dealers. The police were not happy that the men had wet themselves and now had to ride in their cruisers. Nor were they happy about the three officers who refused any patrols at the graveyard, now convinced it was genuinely haunted.)**

**Anyways, the Big Three live! Hooray! I just couldn't take Mirio away from Nighteye's agency, and with UA gone naturally the rest of the Big Three followed. ****Also, very amused that people thought Uraraka might still join the Villain Alliance. Izuku is NOT letting her anywhere near that place.**

**Question for next time: what Pro Hero would cause the most chaos if they randomly switched with their counterpart?**


	34. Chapter 34: Tuesday Beginnings

Chapter 34

.::Tuesday Beginnings::.

Kyouka mounted the steps to Kaminari's apartment with a bag full of food on Tuesday morning, her mood much more somber than usual.

Ever since talking to Iida, the world just felt hazy and grayscale. The test had been a welcome distraction, and she was endlessly relieved that she only had one while Iida had multiple tests. She'd finished hers while he was halfway through his second test, letting her leave first. If he'd finished before her and then waited for her to confront her about Yaomomo, she didn't know what she would have done.

The realization that Iida wasn't from their dimension still felt like a punch to the gut even after a full night, eliminating the one solid theory she had. Kyouka had gone straight to Hatsume's warehouse after school, opening her laptop and blasting music for hours as she tried to distract herself. She kept it up even after the inventor came back from school, and ended up spending the night there.

She'd probably still be there if Kaminari hadn't texted her begging her to bring him breakfast. He had called out from school again, still a bit sore and not wanting to stress his injuries too much. Apparently he'd pulled a muscle while heating up leftovers last night, which made her feel a bit guilty for not checking in with him. But last night she just couldn't stand being around other people, especially Kaminari.

Kyouka had no idea where to go from here, no idea what direction to take their search now. Their most viable lead on potentially figuring out how they got here had been crushed in a matter of minutes, and she couldn't figure out what their next move should be. And knowing Kaminari, he probably wouldn't have any good ideas either.

She heaved a heavy sigh as she reached his door, pulling out the spare key they'd found. With her effectively living there it had been only logical to give Kyouka her own key, but she still knocked before unlocking and opening it. When she entered she immediately spied Kaminari lying facedown on the couch. _At least he'd moved from the bed._

"Yo, Kaminari, I got breakfast," she announced as she closed the door and carried the bag of takeout to the table. She turned to face him and then promptly released an undignified squawk as she came face to face with a pillow flying right at her.

Training kicked in and she jerked to the side in an effort to avoid it, but it was too late to dodge. Kyouka yelped more in surprise than pain as it collided with her chin and chest before falling to the ground limply. For a second she just stood in shock, staring at it wide-eyed before snapping her head towards the couch with a fierce scowl that would make even Bakugou proud.

"_What the hell was that for!?_" she snapped irritably. Kaminari turned his head enough to look at her with one eye, his expression clearly unhappy.

"Everyone's calling me Taser Brain now," he grumbled, and that made her pause, her irritation fading and replaced by confusion.

"Taser Brain...?" she repeated with a frown. Rather than respond Kaminari groaned and buried his face in a pillow again, while using his free arm to grope the coffee table for his phone. He pulled it over and turned his head to look at it long enough to tap the screen, and promptly re-hid his face just as Kyouka's phone buzzed with a text.

Frowning, she pulled it out and saw he'd sent her a link. She absently recognized the url as a fairly popular gossip site before she tapped on it, and then went very still when the page loaded. Plastered top and center was a photo of her and Kaminari in their vigilante costumes standing over the weirdo at the grocery store from Sunday.

'_WHO ARE THE 1-A VIGILANTES?_' read the bold text above it.

And below it, in equally bold but smaller text: '_Hosu's newest sensations: Taser Brain & The Mysterious Punk Vigilante!_'

Kyouka stood in silence, just staring at the photo and headline and processing it. "...I _did_ call you Taser Brain at one point," she said slowly.

The resulting noise Kaminari made sounded like a cross between a groan and a scream, thankfully muffled by the pillow. "It's so _lame_!" he whined as he finally lifted his head to glare at her. "You gave me the _lamest vigilante name ever_, Jirou! Everyone's calling me that now! How _could_ you!"

"In my defense, I didn't mean to make it your actual codename," she replied somewhat lamely. She had just been shouting to get his attention. She didn't expect people to think it was his _official_ name.

"It's too late to take it back!" Kaminari replied. "Since you got me stuck with it, I demand the right to choose _your_ name!"

"_No._" He groaned in frustration at her instant refusal, but didn't try to push the topic as he just buried his face in the pillow again. Kyouka set her phone on the table as she headed to the kitchen to get the plates and cups for their breakfast. "Is your back okay to sit at the table?" she called as she set the table.

"Definitely not," Kaminari mumbled, and Kyouka nodded, grabbing the bag of takeout and carrying it over to the couch. He rolled his head as she dropped it on the floor next to him, letting him see the logo for a local bakery.

"Hatsume told me about this weird bakery that makes stuff you can eat bare-handed," she told him. "This stuff is basically omurice, but wrapped up in bread rolls. She said you shouldn't even have to sit up."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Hatsume's an angel," he said, reaching into the bag to pull out some of the rolls. Kyouka huffed an amused snort. Helpful as Hatsume had been since coming here, '_angel_' was the last word she'd use for the girl. The only reason Hatsume knew about the place was because the food was convenient to eat while working on her inventions.

She pulled out some of the omurice rolls to load onto her own plate, and they lapsed into silence as they began eating. Her eyes flickered to Kaminari, calculating the way he seemed to wince when he stretched his arm too much. "Think you'll be good to go back to school tomorrow?" she asked, and he grimaced as he swallowed a mouthful of bread and rice.

"The pain's mostly gone, but I'm still super-sore," he replied gloomily. "Any chance I can skip tomorrow too?"

"Yeah, sure," she agreed easily, and he actually startled, almost choking on another bite of his roll. She looked away in disgust as he coughed it into his hand, coughing and hacking for a few seconds.

"S-seriously?" he sputtered. "I thought you'd put up more of a fight about it!"

"Yeah, well, things change." She twirled her earphone jack around her finger as she stared down at her half-eaten omurice roll. "The only reason we decided you should go was so we could avoid suspicion while we tried to figure out what the hell is going on."

"We still haven't done that, though," he reminded her sullenly.

"Yeah, but school's not going to help either," she replied coolly, bitterness seeping into her voice as she scowled at her roll. "Dropping out now that we're vigilantes would be suspicious, but we can probably get you set up to do online classes like me."

She took a big bite to punctuate the end of her sentence, and silence lapsed over them. At this point, she saw no real benefit to making Kaminari continue attending school. They wouldn't be able to find answers there, and it just cut into time they could be using to do other stuff, whether it be vigilantism or searching for real, _solid_ leads.

Kaminari didn't respond right away, just watching her chew with an oddly pensive look. "...Jirou," he said slowly. "Did something happen yesterday?" She frowned but didn't immediately answer, taking her time to finish chewing

"I was wrong," she finally said after she swallowed, not looking at him.

"About what?"

"Iida didn't recognize me."

"...Oh." A heavy silence fell over them after that, Kyouka just focusing on taking another bite. She'd given Kaminari a rough rundown of her theory about the kids on their floor being hit by the Quirk after she first noticed Iida's name on her class roster. At the time he'd agreed that it seemed like the most likely explanation, especially since so far all of the students they'd met had been from other floors.

Kyouka noted almost bitterly that he probably didn't feel the impact as heavily as she did, or else he'd probably be crying or freaking out or—_something_. Instead, Kaminari was just quiet, a contemplative frown on his face as he stared at his half-eaten roll.

"...I made a FacePage profile yesterday." _That_ got her attention, and she looked over at him curiously.

"What?" she asked, and he shrugged, grunting as he forced himself to shift and sit up straight. He winced as the motion pulled on his back, but ignored it to focus on his phone.

"Well, we're trying to make a name for ourselves online, right?" he asked. "You know, see if anyone recognized us as, well, _us_. But I realized that doesn't really mean anything if they can't figure out a way to reach us, so I figured I'd make it easier." As he spoke he tapped the screen, and seconds later they heard a chime from the kitchen table. They both paused, turning to look at the direction of the table.

"...Did you just try to text it to me?" Kyouka asked after a few seconds.

"Yeah," Kaminari confirmed lamely, and let out a tired groan. "Dang it, I thought it'd be so cool to do it like that!" Kyouka snorted, rolling her eyes as she got up to go retrieve her phone. She quickly opened the link Kaminari just sent her, eyebrows arching as the profile page loaded. It had a simple banner at the top, black with a white lightning bolt and the stars like on her own mask on either side of the name "1-A Vigilantes."

"You already made a banner for us?" she asked, and he just grunted in affirmation, still a bit sulky about his grand reveal being ruined. She ignored his sullen mood as she skimmed the page curiously.

It wasn't anything fancy. He'd shared the photos from that blogger they'd saved in their debut and Satou's Instagram. He hadn't made any actual text posts yet, and that realization made her arch her eyebrows more as she glanced back at him. "So you made an account, even made a banner, but haven't actually _posted_ anything?"

"Not much to post right now," he said sulkily. "It's not like we've taken any pictures or anything, and I didn't feel right making a post without you. I mostly just wanted to grab the profile name before a copycat could take it and pretend to be us." She hummed, turning back to look at her phone.

All things considered, this was actually a pretty good idea. While their goal _was_ to make themselves more visible in hopes of finding people who recognized them, she hadn't thought about how they might contact them. It's not like she and Kaminari walked around in vigilante gear full-time or anything. Using social media like this had _especially_ never occurred to her. Then again, she'd been focused on other stuff.

"I texted Hatsume after school, too," Kaminari continued, "about making accounts on other sites. She said FacePage is really secure, but some of the other sites might be easier for police to track us. She said she'd get a guy she knows to install some program or something that'll hide our computers somehow if we want to do it anyway. I don't know, a lot of what she said went over my head but it sounds like she knows how to handle it, so I guess we can just leave it to her."

"That's pretty smart," Kyouka said, and turned to him with a small smile. "Good going, Kaminari." He just gaped at her, and her smile faded. "Yo, something wrong?"

"Did... did you just compliment me?" he asked dumbly, and she found herself snorting.

"Yeah, dumbass," she deadpanned, ignoring his offended cry. "You're not an idiot _all_ the time. If you have a good idea, I'm not going to lie just to keep up an image or something. That'd be stupid. I wouldn't have thought of this anyway." Kaminari just stared for a moment before slowly nodding, and then he broke into a big smile.

"So I'm not useless!" he cheered, pumping a fist into the air as he jumped up. "_Yes!_" He paused then, arm still in the air, before collapsing onto the couch with a pathetic whine. "Owww, my back...!" As he whined in pain Kyouka just rolled her eyes, returning to her place by the coffee table to continue eating. Later she'd see if they had a heating pad or something that might help the soreness, but for now she needed to eat.

Still, leave it to Kaminari to make her feel better. What started as a pretty crummy day had become notably more hopeful. The future was more uncertain than ever, but maybe things would be a little brighter.

* * *

Morning had never been such an anxious affair for Izuku.

Don't get him wrong, breakfast was fine and tasted pretty good, and it felt great and familiar to be eating with Uraraka again. Even Aiko was actually pretty pleasant to be around despite his initial concerns. She'd prepared breakfast by the time they woke up, and had teased Izuku about his longing look at the most sugary cereal on the table before opting for something healthier. It was an all around friendly atmosphere, and really the most peaceful morning since he'd woken up in this world.

But that didn't remove the anxiety from what the rest of the day held.

"Okay, Giri will probably call soon to ask about you coming back," Aiko said as she checked her phone. "I'd offer to let you stay a bit longer so you could hang out with your friend some more, but..."

"I can't leave them alone," Izuku replied, feeling equal parts miserable and determined. As much as he hated leaving Uraraka alone with Aiko, he couldn't leave Kacchan and Shinsou alone with the Alliance, and he _especially_ couldn't ignore Aizawa-sensei. He needed to go back and make sure they wouldn't kill him.

Maybe his thoughts showed on his face, because Aiko's expression softened and she leaned over to ruffle his hair. "Don't be so worried, Izun. If they were going to kill anyone, they would have done it before bringing them to the base."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?" Uraraka asked in Izuku's place as he grumbled and pulled away, her voice faintly disturbed.

"I have no idea actually," Aiko replied with a nonchalant shrug as she settled back in her seat. "I'm mostly just stating facts. If you're worried about the hero you saw yesterday, he's definitely alive. It's easier to kill someone than to capture them, so the fact you saw him getting dragged into a cell means they don't plan to kill him."

"...That's awful, but also weirdly helpful," Izuku said with a miserable groan. "But _why_ would they capture him?"

"...You'll probably find out soon," Aiko muttered after a few seconds, very pointedly not looking at him. _That... What the heck, that was so ominous!_

"Do you know something!?" He half-rose from his chair, staring at her pleadingly as she continued to avoid looking at him. "Can't you _please_ just tell me!?"

"If I'm right and I tell you, Tomura will probably get mad," she replied, and added under her breath with a sheepish smile, "And I kinda owe him for yesterday..."

Everything. _Everything_ about this conversation was highly concerning, and Izuku felt mildly _terrified_ about what the heck was going to happen. "What did you do yesterday?" he asked, dreading the response, but Aiko just avoided looking at him and instead glanced at her phone with an innocent smile.

"Oh look at that, Kurogiri says you can go back now," she said cheerfully as she began typing. Uraraka leaned over from her own seat to glance at the screen.

"You're texting him to ask him to take Deku back," she commented flatly, and Aiko turned that way-too-cheerful smile to her.

"No I'm not." Judging by the unimpressed look on Uraraka's face, Aiko had probably just hit send. A few seconds later the phone dinged with a text, further proving that Kurogiri had _not_ been the one to initiate the conversation since her phone hadn't dinged earlier. "Oh, he can open the portal right now if you want."

_Seriously!?_ "This is going way too fast!" Izuku yelped. "I can't just leave now, I still need to work out contact stuff with Uraraka!"

"We'll buy her a burner phone of her own later today," Aiko assured him with a smile. "Giri won't mind if you want to come visit me again to clear your head, but you _really_ need to go back today." The reminder made Izuku feel almost nauseous, but he found himself sighing and nodding as he got up, shoulders slumped with resignation.

"Yeah, I know." He had to go back and face them properly, and find out what the Alliance wanted from Aizawa-sensei. Aiko checked her phone and glanced at Uraraka.

"Might want to pop into the bathroom or something. I never did figure out if Giri can see stuff when he opens his portals." She nodded seriously as she got up, giving Izuku a reassuring pat on the shoulder as she passed him.

"Don't worry Deku, we'll talk again soon!" she told him, and he found himself smiling at the undertone to her words: _You're not alone anymore._ That reminder made him feel much lighter, the knowledge that others were here too lightening his burden just a little bit. He watched Uraraka disappear into the bathroom before turning to Aiko.

"I'm ready," he said. She nodded and tapped away on her phone, and a few seconds later an inky black portal opened near the table. He felt tense as he stared at it, once again flashing back to the first time he saw it back at USJ. But despite the thrill of dread he shoved it down and forced himself to step into the portal.

Black consumed his vision immediately, and when it cleared he found himself not in the bar as he'd expected but the hallway outside his room. He blinked in surprise as he looked around, finding Kurogiri and Shigaraki standing not far away. The younger of the two was leaning against a wall playing a game console, and Izuku's eyes instantly locked on his right wrist.

"What happened?" he blurted in surprise. There was a brace wrapped around his wrist, the black kind found in hardware stores, and beneath it he could see bandages.

"Aiko happened," Shigaraki replied with a snort, and Izuku just _stared_. Suddenly he was remembering her very cheery comment about needing to talk to Shigaraki about "_things_," and he found himself shuddering. _Aiko really was a scary person, wasn't she..._

As he mulled over that Kurogiri cleared his throat, and Shigaraki scoffed before turning off the console and sliding it into his pocket. "Okay, I was a _bit_ rough yesterday and didn't explain anything, and I guess that might have freaked you out."

"_Might have_?" Izuku repeated without thinking, voice dripping with sarcasm. Spending so much time with villains really must be impacting him, because he'd never have spoken to Shigaraki or any villain like that even just last week.

Fortunately Shigaraki didn't take offense, just scoffing again as he turned and began walking. "Yeah, fine. I was too rough on that guy. I didn't think you were around to see it though, and I got annoyed because you weren't supposed to know."

"So you didn't plan on telling me he was here?" Izuku asked with a frown as he followed. "Why did you even capture him, anyway? And where did you find him? He looks like he was a prisoner for a while already, right?" The questions tumbled out one after another, his anxiety from this whole mess too much to hold it back anymore.

"Calm down, Izuku," Shigaraki muttered, and reached for his neck only to flinch and quickly lower his hand. "Yeah, we're not the ones who captured him. We found him in a minor raid yesterday. We'd heard rumors those guys had captured Eraserhead, but I didn't think such shitty NPCs would actually pull it off." That made Izuku's heart leap into his throat, quickly catching onto the subtext.

"You... you were looking for him specifically?" he asked, his horror growing. _Why?_ Why would the Alliance want to look for Aizawa-sensei? What did they want with him?

"Of course," Shigaraki responded, hand once again flinching and retracting as he reached for his neck again. "It was supposed to be a surprise, which is what made me so irritated you saw it, but whatever. I found him for _you_." That made Izuku stop short, staring at the back of the villain's head in shock.

"Wait, what?" he asked, and Shigaraki paused, turning to look at him with that eerie smile that sent chills down his spine.

"Surprise. I got you a hero."

* * *

**We now know why Shigaraki captured Aizawa! Shoutout to Hollyingrd6 on AO3, who remembered Shigaraki mentioning a side quest to boost his relationship with Izuku a long time ago and correctly figured out it was referring to Aizawa.**

**Not much else to say. My internship is now having weekly Zoom meetings every Monday, and my workload's about to ramp up a bit. I'll try to keep up Monday releases but they're going to be posted a bit later than before. I may move the release time to another day. The main reason I do it on Mondays is to give people something to look forward to after the weekend ends, but right now the world's in such a weird state that it might not have that much impact in that regard. We'll see!**

**Question for next time: which canon character would make the most hilarious villain or hero if their alignment swapped?**


	35. Chapter 35: A Break in Routine

**BEFORE I START:**

**I received the first piece of fan art for this story from a reader on AO3! You can find it on my tumblr, cannibalisticapple. It's by Isaac7568 (endlessshinsou on Tumblr) and it features Todoroki's disguise, a look at Shinsou's muzzle and also Shinsou, Izuku and Bakugou all planning their escape. Please go look at it, it's amazing!  
**

* * *

Chapter 35

.::A Break in Routine::.

That day had begun normally enough for Shouta, or as normally as it went since he'd been captured. Food had been delivered at some point and he'd been taken to the bathroom, his captor had spit in his face (which he couldn't even wipe off, much to his ire), and then he'd been left alone for hours on end like usual. Chained to the wall as always, left with nothing to occupy himself except stare at the door waiting for it to open.

As dire as his situation was, this sort of routine had become normal for him. Once his captors lost their initial interest in torturing him, they mostly just left him alone. It was a wonder he hadn't gone crazy yet from the isolation. For the most part he drifted in and out of sleep, and this day proved no different, falling into a light doze.

Up until a loud scream woke him with a start.

From the moment he opened his eyes, he realized something _big_ was happening. The sounds of a battle rang throughout the building, crashes echoing in the distance and more screams ringing before abruptly cutting out. Those screams were what filled him with the most alarm, because those weren't shouts of anger or even fear, those were the screams of people _dying_.

Someone had invaded, and they weren't heroes.

Shouta shifted onto his knees and scrambled back until the chain attached to his collar went taut, staring at the door with his heart thundering in his ears. More and more screams sounded, each closer than the last, and he found most of the voices familiar as his captors. Whoever had invaded was clearly winning, and Shouta had no idea what would happen when they found him.

The minutes ticked by slowly as the sounds of fighting drew closer, and finally he heard footsteps striding down the hall. Not the heavy footfalls of boots he'd gotten used to, this was someone else entirely. He held his breath as the steps halted outside the door, waiting for the familiar sound of the metal bar lifting.

Instead, the door _dissolved_.

Terror surged through Shouta at the sight, his body locking up as the door he had spent months staring at helplessly was reduced to a pile of dust within _seconds_. A lone figure stood on the other side, dark and menacing with the light from the hallway backlighting their silhouette. His breath caught as he recognized silvery blue hair and disembodied hands gripping the figure's arms and torso, eyes widening as he realized who this must be.

_Shigaraki Tomura._

The leader of the Villain Alliance had been on everyone's radars ever since their big debut, his Quirk making him even _more_ dangerous than most big-name villains. Photos of the man had only recently begun circulating before Shouta's capture, but everyone knew about the hands. Seeing him when Shouta was so _vulnerable_ made him physically sick. The man tilted his head as his eerie red eyes locked on Shouta, making him grit his teeth apprehensively.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Shigaraki murmured as he stepped forward. On instinct Shouta flared his Quirk for the first time in months, hair rising and eyes flaring red. Though the past several months had been hellish, Shouta didn't want to die yet.

The flash of his Quirk made Shigaraki halt his progress, looking at him almost curiously. The villain then _slammed_ a hand on the door's frame, making Shouta flinch, but he didn't dare let his eyes close. When the frame remained intact Shigaraki turned to look at him again, a glint of recognition visible in his eyes.

"The stories were true after all," he murmured, his cracked lips breaking into a wide smile that sent chills down his spine. "Eraserhead, how good to see you."

That had been all Shouta needed to blink in shock, physically recoiling as terror seized him fully. No one from the Alliance should know his name, he'd been careful to never leave any evidence of his identity. Only a handful of photos existed, and beyond that he wasn't even wearing his costume. The fact that Shigaraki recognized him anyway meant he'd been _specifically_ looking for Shouta, which couldn't mean anything good.

Shigaraki disintegrated the chain connecting his collar the floor, and more villains poured in to hold Shouta in place while they blindfolded and gagged him. Of course he'd struggled, but in his heavily bound and weakened state he couldn't do much. Soon Shouta found himself being forced into a new cell, unable to even notice the transition from one location to the next in his temporarily blinded state. The move was hazy, and getting his face slammed into the floor only further clouded his thoughts.

By the time his head stopped ringing from the pain he'd been shoved to the ground once more, the bulky metal collar around his neck gone and traded for a leather one that at least had padding under the band. It seemed he'd be tethered to the ground this time, and they tethered his right ankle to the same point to further limit his mobility.

Though first, they made sure to _break_ his other leg.

That had been probably the most painful part of the ordeal. He hadn't been able to suppress his muffled scream as one of the Alliance had delivered a harsh blow to his left leg with a pipe, snapping the bone halfway between his knee and ankle. It had been far from the worst pain he'd suffered but no less horrific, unable to brace himself without his sight, and leaving him curled on the ground with pained gasps hindered by the gag.

"Look at you," Shigaraki drawled above him, voice dripping with disdain. "One of the few great heroes left, and you can't even stop crying." Even if he hadn't been gagged Shouta wouldn't be able to respond, gritting his teeth around the fabric as he tried to muffle a pained hiss. He knew he looked pathetic, quivering on the ground and curled as tight as he could manage as he tried to ignore the throbbing in his leg.

Shigaraki clicked his tongue in disappointment, a sign Shouta's suffering hadn't ended. "Hah, this won't do. Izu-chan will be so _upset_ if we just leave you like this." Rough hands forced him to uncurl then, grabbing his injured leg and sending waves of pain through it.

He didn't try holding back his muffled screams this time as his captors began setting his leg, attaching it to a splint and binding it to hold the splint in place. It only made him more aware of how precise the blow had been, the position of the break allowing him to bend his knee even with the bulky splint in place.

By the time they finished he was shaking like a leaf, only years of training and experience with bad injuries preventing him from hyperventilating. After undergoing torture for who knows how long his body had already been weaker than normal, so he found himself entering a state of almost shock. Too bad that didn't take away the pain.

Someone finally tore the gag off him and he gasped, the sudden freedom in his jaw honestly painful. He could hear Shigaraki walk over to him, fabric shifting as the villain crouched next to him. "Much better," he hummed in that raspy voice of his, and Shouta could imagine his cracked lips twisting in a demented smile, cruel and mocking. "I don't think you'll be walking anytime soon."

Shouta inhaled a deep, shuddery breath, mentally counting to ten as he tried to direct his thoughts away from the pain. "F-f-f-fuck y-y-you," he breathed out shakily, gritting his teeth. He winced as he felt fingers brush through his hair, four trailing along his scalp with feather-light touches while the index finger hovered out of reach. His breath caught and he stilled as images of decaying walls and dissolving limbs filled his mind.

"Now, now, don't be that way. You'll be with us for a long time, Eraserhead. My brother is very eager to meet you."

_ Brother_. Shigaraki had referenced an "Izu-chan" earlier, and it filled him with dread. Shouta knew about the boy with green hair of course, descriptions of the boy had been circulating around their circle since that first sighting at one of their now-empty bases. No one knew what role the teen served, nor even his full name, but if he wanted to meet Shouta... It couldn't be good, especially if he was Shigaraki's _brother_.

"I hope you live up to his expectations," Shigaraki chuckled. "Because if not..." His fingers moved to the blindfold and it dissolved, and Shouta found himself staring up at a demented grin full of condescension and taunting malice. "_There's really no point in keeping you alive._"

He withdrew his hand from Shouta's hair and stepped back, stalking towards the door. "Come on, let's leave our guest so he can rest. Someone can bring him food and see to his needs later, we've got other stuff to do." The other grunts made noises of agreement as they followed him outside, the door closing behind them with a resounding thud. Then Shouta heard a lock click followed by heavy silence, and he let his eyes fall shut as he curled up on his side with a pained hiss.

* * *

And that was how Izuku found him the next morning. His teacher chained to the ground, with a collar like a dog and eyes full of hatred directed at him.

"Surprise," Shigaraki said behind him with half-hearted jazz hands—or, _hand_, since he only used one given the other was still in a brace. "I got you a pet."

If anything, Aizawa-sensei's glare hardened at those words.

"Um." Izuku really didn't know what to say to this. Words did not describe the awkwardness and horror of seeing his teacher as a prisoner—_his_ prisoner, if he was reading the "pet" comment right. A lot of crazy things had happened since waking up in this crazy alternate dimension, but this one took the cake. Which surprised him given how they'd kidnapped Kacchan, muzzled Shinsou, and then... well, _literally everything_ Uraraka did.

But this? Yeah, this was the craziest one of all.

He could feel Shigaraki pause behind him, picture him tilting his head even without looking. "Do you not like it?" he questioned. "I thought Eraserhead was your favorite hero."

"No, he is!" Izuku said quickly as he whirled to face the villain. "I-I'm just surprised I guess, that's all! I never thought I'd actually get to meet him." He flashed Shigaraki a nervous smile, his words bolstered by the fact he told the truth. He didn't expect to see Aizawa-sensei here, in this world—or at the very least, not as a prisoner of the Alliance. He could feel the man's glare boring into his back but tried to ignore it, instead asking, "Also, uh, what do you mean by pet?"

"He belongs to you now," Shigaraki replied smoothly, but his words carried a calculating edge, watching him closely as he casually waved his good hand. "Eraserhead has been a pain, but he doesn't pose a real threat to us on his own, especially like this. And since we're not the ones who captured him, it's not like anyone is likely to track him to us. We _could_ have just killed him," he added casually, oblivious to Izuku's horrified internal shriek at that, "but I thought you'd have more fun with him."

Once again Izuku could feel Aizawa-sensei's glare intensify, the hairs pricking on the back of his neck as he kept his gaze firmly trained on Shigaraki. "I-I see... Thank you, Tomura-nii." The title felt like ash on his tongue, heavy and unfamiliar and _wrong_ in this scenario. It clearly pleased Shigaraki though, because the older male immediately relaxed and grinned that unsettling smile of his, his red eyes creasing with pleasure.

"Anything for you, Izuku," he said, and it took all Izuku had not to flinch when the man ruffled his hair, careful to keep one finger lifted. "I'll leave you to have fun now. I'll see you at dinner."

"Right, see you then," Izuku agreed, hoping his own smile didn't look as strained as it felt. Shigaraki seemed pleased with Izuku's reaction and departed with a small wave, leaving Izuku alone with his teacher. After a tense moment he slowly turned around and found burning black eyes glaring at him, making him shudder.

Aizawa-sensei did _not_ look happy. Izuku expected no less of a man in this predicament. More importantly than that though, he saw no recognition either, not like he had with Uraraka. His heart sank at the confirmation that this was not the teacher he knew but an alternate version of the man, one which had no knowledge of him other than that he called Shigaraki "_Tomura-nii_."

This would _not_ be fun.

"Um, hi," he greeted lamely, not knowing what else to say. Searching for a topic, he glanced over the man and winced when he noticed the splint on his leg, having been too stunned by just _seeing_ Aizawa earlier to notice it before. "Did you break your leg?" He internally winced even as he blurted out the question, recognizing how stupid and unnecessary it was. His (_not-_)teacher's gaze grew sharper, more calculating.

"Your brother did," he replied flatly, even as his eyes held that analytic gleam usually reserved for enemies. Izuku sucked in a quiet breath, averting his gaze as he recognized he pretty much _did_ count as one.

"O-oh, right..." _Of course he did._ He had to admit, breaking his leg would be better at keeping him down than just chaining him. Chains could be broken with enough force, even turned into weapons if one was creative and agile enough. Broken bones rarely worked to one's advantage though, making escape that much harder. Though Shigaraki still went on to chain him down anyway, but the point remained.

Keenly aware of his alternate teacher's probing gaze, Izuku coughed into his hand as he tried to look anywhere but at Aizawa. "A-anyway, you're probably tired, so I'll j-just... let you rest now. I'll be back in a bit with—food, I g-guess." With that he quickly took his leave, all too eager to get away from that cold stare. Once outside he slumped against the wall and groaned softly, rubbing at his eyes. This was officially a nightmare.

He felt Seiko before he saw her, and when he turned his head he found her standing directly next to him, expression blank and unreadable as ever. He didn't even have the energy to react with shock or feel creeped out by her, too emotionally numb from what just happened. "What does it mean to have a 'pet' here?" he asked tiredly.

"What do you do for a dog?" Seiko asked in turn, and he hung his head with a groan. So basically, Aizawa-sensei's life probably hinged on him providing food, water and all other necessities. Great.

"Please tell me I don't have to take him to the bathroom too," he groaned, covering his face.

"No, there are others handling that part." Izuku genuinely couldn't tell if he was relieved about that or not. Relieved because he didn't have to do it—that would be so _freaking awkward_—but that still left his teacher at villains' mercies more than he'd like. Also, his teacher _hated_ him. It was obvious from the way he looked at Izuku.

He took a deep breath and lowered his hands, starting down the hall in silence. He barely paid attention to Seiko as she faded into his shadow, just navigating the now-familiar halls until he reached Bakugou's cell. He knocked on the door twice before pushing it open, finding the blond pacing the room clearly waiting for him.

"Deku! Where the hell did you—" Kacchan stopped short when he whirled to face him and saw Izuku's expression. He must have looked awful because Kacchan's scowl instantly shifted to a look of _concern_ of all things. "What the fuck? Why the hell do you look like that, Deku?"

Rather than respond Izuku just walked over and threw his arms around Kacchan, making the blond flinch, but he didn't try to push him away. Izuku just squeezed him for a few seconds, needing the bit of human contact to ground himself. Eventually he let go and stepped back, finding Kacchan looking at him with a bewildered look.

"We need to go to Hijack," Izuku said hollowly. To his credit Bakugou just nodded, following Izuku in silence to Shinsou's cell. When they arrived they found the purple-haired boy only just waking up, sitting up in the bed as the door opened and rubbing his eyes. He blinked slowly as Izuku and Bakugou filed inside, Izuku closing the door silently and turning to face them.

"Oi, you awake yet?" Bakugou asked Shinsou gruffly. He got another slow blink in response followed by a nod, and Bakugou turned to Izuku with a frown. "Okay, now that we're all accounted for, what the hell happened yesterday? Why did that Toga-chick have to come get me, and _where were you_!?"

Izuku sucked in a sharp breath, fists clenching at his sides. "Seiko," he said, and the other two jumped as the girl emerged from his shadow, Bakugou cursing loudly as his hands sparked. Izuku turned to look at her somberly, staring into those unsettling inverted eyes. "I need you to leave us alone for a while."

Seiko looked at him silently for several long moments, but then cocked her head to the side before nodding. "Alright." With that she faded into the shadows once more, and he could feel some of the tension in the room vanish as she departed. He had no way to know if she was truly gone or not, but for now he had no choice but to trust that she was. He couldn't wait long enough to check.

He turned to face the others, grim and serious. "They captured a hero," he said, and the other two went wide-eyed. And with that, Izuku launched into explaining everything that had happened since he left the previous day. Seeing Eraserhead, getting teleported to Aiko's apartment, and then his surprise reunion with Uraraka. He had to backtrack a bit to explain how they ran into each other last week at that point.

"When did you even meet her?" Bakugou asked in exasperation, and Izuku could only shrug.

"I'm not sure, but I recognized her instantly and she recognized me." It didn't even feel like a total lie, he just didn't explain _why_ he recognized her. After that he wrapped up by explaining his return that morning and subsequent encounter with Eraserhead, and how Shigaraki had basically gifted the man to him as a pet. When he finished the group sat in silence, all of them processing it.

Finally Kacchan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Deku," he said flatly. "Why the fuck does Shittyraki keep giving you people as gifts?" Shinsou cocked his head at the question and turned to look at Izuku expectantly, clearly wondering the same thing, and he could only shrug helplessly.

"I don't know, maybe it's a villain thing?" he said tiredly. Thinking back to Aiko's own failed attempts to comfort him last night, he grimaced and added, "I don't think _any_ of them know how to bond with people, you know, _normally_." Shinsou grabbed his white board from the table by the bed and began writing, the motions slightly more sluggish than usual in his still-groggy state.

'_We have an ally on the outside. That's good._' Of all the responses Izuku expected to all this, optimism was the last one, especially from Shinsou. Even Kacchan seemed a bit taken aback by it, just staring at the board.

"Okay, yeah, that's good and all I guess, but—" Shinsou held up a hand to silence him, and the blond twitched and scowled but surprisingly kept his mouth shut while Shinsou wrote some more.

'_Our priority is escape. If we have someone on the outside they can help arrange a place to hide after we leave._'

Izuku perked up at that and bobbed his head. "That was my thought too! Aiko-nee said she'd help Uraraka get a burner phone of her own later so we can talk more, so we'll try to coordinate stuff then. But..." He frowned, looking down at his feet. "I don't know what to do about Eraserhead though. He's not in good shape, and—and his leg is broken." He grimaced at the memory of the splint. Rescuing Aizawa-sensei would not be easy when the man couldn't walk on his own.

Shinsou seemed undaunted by the challenge though, his eyes increasingly alert as he penned his response. '_We'll bust him out too. He can get us in contact with other heroes and help you two find somewhere safe._'

That got their attention for different reasons than Shinsou might expect. "_Us two_?" Bakugou asked before Izuku could. "What, are you not planning to come too, dumbass?" Shinsou shook his head as he erased it and quickly jotted a reply.

'_I have somewhere else to go._' Izuku perked up at that, but the fact Shinsou deliberately wrote only that made it clear he didn't intend to elaborate. Bakugou picked up on that too, because he grumbled under his breath but didn't try to push.

"Well, we're not leaving a hero behind anyway," he said instead. "Who knows what those sick fucks would do to him if Deku up and vanished?" He turned to Izuku, his eyes narrowing. "You _do_ plan to come too, right?"

"Of course!" Izuku confirmed with a firm nod. "I know they'll probably try to chase me down, so it might be more dangerous, but..." He trailed off with a frown, realizing he might be overstepping his boundaries and making this more dangerous for everyone. If Shigaraki was willing to kidnap a hero just to make Izuku happy, who knew what he'd do if Izuku suddenly disappeared? And that didn't even touch on Aiko, who he could tell cared for him just as much as Shigaraki, if not more.

Before his thoughts could spiral further Bakugou grunted and nodded. "Good. Then we need to get this Eraserhead guy to trust you so you don't get thrown into prison as an accomplice or some shit after we escape." His words surprised Izuku, not expecting Bakugou to care about that. When he looked at him the blond scoffed. "Don't give me that look! I spent _years_ thinking you were dead, Deku. I'm not gonna just let you disappear into prison or some other shithole right after finding you again!"

"K-Kacchan," Izuku whispered, tears starting to well. He really did care, didn't he?

"And I can't kick your ass for making me think you were dead all that time until after we get out of here!" Bakugou continued, and _ah_, he just wanted to make sure he'd have a chance to vent at Izuku without the threat of being killed by Shigaraki. That still made tears bubble up even more though, because while it was still crass, Izuku could still detect the underlying note of concern that prompted the violent urge.

His hands clenched and he quickly wiped away the tears, and then took a deep breath. "Also, those anklets are bombs and will explode if you leave the building!" he blurted, and the other two startled at that. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier but I only found out from Seiko on Saturday when I took Hijack to Kacchan's cell, and I didn't know how to tell you guys! Everyone was already so on edge and I didn't want to make it worse, but I'm sorry I didn't say it earlier—"

He stopped short as Shinsou raised a hand to stop him, his other hand moving to hold his head. Being subjected to rambling like that first thing after waking up must be grating. His heart pounded as he waited for their responses, gaze anxiously flicking between them. _Was that too blunt? Should I have been a bit more considerate?_ Finally Bakugou frowned.

"Okay, and?" he asked, and now it was Izuku's turn to just stare.

"...Wait, you don't have any questions? You're not—aren't you shocked or mad or, or _something_?"

"Of _course_ I'm pissed!" Kacchan snapped. "I've got a _fucking bomb_ strapped to my ankle, that's fucked up! But with all the other shit these guys have pulled, I figured there was something more to this stupid thing than just shocks or whatever." Shinsou cocked his head to the side, turning his whiteboard to jot something.

'_I thought it would inject poison. Not sure if this is better or worse._' When Izuku and Bakugou looked at him in shock he just shrugged. '_It has to poke us to shock us anyway. Figured it'd be easy to just put poison in it._'

"Yeah, okay, either way these things are fucked up," Kacchan said, turning back to Izuku. "It doesn't matter how it kills us, we already knew these things need to go. But I'm guessing you _don't_ know how to remove them or you would've mentioned it before."

Izuku just stared, still a bit shocked by how easily they accepted it, but at the question he snapped back to reality and sighed. "I don't," he confirmed glumly. "Sorry, I don't think I've ever seen them."

"Damn," Bakugou hissed under his breath, and crossed his arms with a contemplative scowl. "Does that hero have one?"

"Not that I saw?" He scratched the back of his neck as he tried to recall. "Like I said, they broke one of his legs, so they probably figured that was enough."

"Yeah, that does make it harder," Bakugou muttered with a frown. "But that also means we just need to worry about these two. It sucks, but we'll figure out something Deku. At least he'll probably be able to help us with everything _after_ we get blow this dump."

"Yeah," Izuku agreed quietly, and could feel tears forming again as he smiled. The way Kacchan said "_we_" so casually there, and how he and Shinsou had just—accepted this revelation about their anklets... They didn't even get mad at him for hiding it for so long, or accuse him of trying to sabotage the escape by withholding information, just went right on to planning. They didn't see him as an enemy or a threat, they were...

_They were treating him like an ally._

The others jumped as the waterworks started, Bakugou cursing and Shinsou scrambling onto his bed to avoid the deluge of water. "No, his Quirk's not crying!" he heard Kacchan snap at one point, and Izuku didn't know why he said that but he didn't care. They _trusted_ him, even when they had absolutely every reason to hate his guts, and Kacchan even _cared_ about him in his own rough Kacchan way. And with all the stress he'd been under, that realization just made him cry and cry.

It hit him now more than ever that this was really going to happen, he was going to escape with his friends. He didn't even know if the other Izuku _wanted_ to leave. These people were his counterpart's family after all, even if they were all villains, but he himself couldn't stay with the League no matter what name it used.

Somehow though, he felt like his counterpart wouldn't be too upset.

* * *

**BONUS: If Alternate-Izuku was there when Shigaraki Gave Him Eraserhead Instead  
**

In one world, Midoriya Izuku got a Quirk from All Might and went to UA to eventually become the greatest hero in the world.

In _this_ world, All Might died, then his parents died, then he ran away, and then he got adopted by the Villain Alliance.

...Yeah, this was not how he'd ever imagined his life going, but it was what it was. Izuku really had no one to blame but himself with the last part, he could have just said no and eventually gone back to the Bakugou house, but this was his life now. He was a Quirkless kid living with one of the most notorious organizations of all, and calling the heir to the villain that killed All Might "_nii-san_". It's not like it was a _bad_ life either. It's not like they _expected_ him to participate in their nefarious plans, in fact it was quite the opposite, but... well, it still wasn't normal. The change had been weird and sometimes scary, but over the years he'd come to truly love his weird new family, and learn to stop being so horrified and shocked by their villainous tendencies.

Sometimes, Shigaraki still caught him by surprise though.

"Surprise," Tomura said behind him with half-hearted jazz hands. "I got you a pet."

Izuku didn't respond, just staring at Eraserhead who glowered back at him. The hero had _definitely_ seen better days, between being collared to the ground, having his hands bound behind his back, and oh, you know, _the broken leg_. Izuku didn't know the man, but he could tell he usually didn't look this bad.

Tomura had gotten him a lot of... _weird_ gifts before. You know, like a piece of a costume belonging to a Pro Hero the Alliance had killed on their latest attack. Or autographed merchandise of a Pro Hero they asked to sign some bauble of Izuku's, to lower their guard before launching a surprise attack and killing them. Or a picture of a hero beaten black and blue, but who they DIDN'T kill because they were one of Izuku's favorites.

That always sucked to see his favorite heroes so badly beaten up, sometimes to the point they would never even WALK again, but it was a nice... _attempt_ at a nice gesture on his big brother's part. He might be going about it wrong, but his heart was in the... actually, no, it was still in the wrong place. There was a reason Kurogiri and Aiko made him stop doing that. To be fair, Tomura didn't realize how devastating it was to let a kid see their favorite heroes in that sort of state.

But this was the first time his brother went as far as to get him a hero AS a gift.

Izuku met Eraserhead's hateful gaze for a moment longer, and then turned to face his brother. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!" he screamed with a bright smile, throwing himself at Tomura in a cheerful embrace that nearly knocked the villain off his foot. "You're the best brother EVER!"

Tomura returned the embrace warmly, patting his hair. "I knew you'd like it," he chuckled.

"I LOVE it!" Izuku replied even as he internally whispered _what the fuck what the fuck what the hell this is NOT okay! People are NOT PETS Tomura! What do I even do with a pet hero!?_

He didn't vocalize any of that out loud though, because he at least knew Tomura was trying to be a good brother. It wasn't _his_ fault that he'd been raised by a psycho villain that was trying to completely brainwash him so that no traces of basic human morals remained after all. He didn't really know how to show his affection in a healthy, normal manner.

...Also, if Izuku explained that, Tomura would probably decide to kill Eraserhead anyway because by this point the man had seen too much. Eraserhead was kinda screwed either way, so better to NOT upset his older brother.

He pulled away with a big grin. "Thank you SO MUCH!"

"Anything for you," Tomura chuckled. "I need to get back to work, so I'll leave you to have fun."

"Okay!" Izuku agreed with a cheery grin, and waved his brother off as he left. Once the door closed he stood in silence for a minute, and then let his head hang with a sigh. He turned to meet the burning black eyes glaring a hole into his back. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about him. I swear I did not ask him to kidnap you. Or, uh, break your leg. I'm guessing he did that?"

"He did," Eraserhead confirmed crisply, and Izuku sucked in a breath.

"Yeah, yep, yep, figured as much. Guess it makes sense, makes it harder to escape or fight back than with plain old chains... Can't really weaponize a broken leg or break—well, you _could_ break it more, but that'd just make it worse, aaaand I'm just going to stop rambling now. Sorry he did that, but hey, at least you're alive!" He laughed awkwardly while Eraserhead remained silent. Yep, this was even more awkward than he'd feared. _Eh, since Eraserhead was here anyway and unable to leave, he might as well..._ "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"_What?_" the hero all but growled.

"Does your costume have yellow goggles with vertical slots on the eye holes?" That made Eraserhead pause, his eyes narrowing.

"So what if it does?" he asked shortly, voice full of suspicion, and Izuku perked up.

"Oh! Then those really ARE your goggles, aren't they! Cool! I thought they might be because they looked like the sketch Aiko-nee made me for me, but I wasn't sure." He paused then, regarding the suddenly _very still_ hero curiously. "Hey, why _does_ Aiko-nee have your goggles, anyway?"

...In retrospect, Izuku probably should have realized the way Eraserhead was suddenly _very still_ at the mention of Aiko probably meant it was a bad time to ask questions. While he might be better than Tomura, he had _also_ been raised by villains for the most part and largely isolated due to bullying before that. So he lacked in some pretty basic social etiquette too.

(At least he learned how to calm a panic attack though. Thanks internet!)

* * *

**EXTRA BONUS**

"_I hope you live up to his expectations, because if not... _There's really no point in keeping you alive."

The words played on repeat in Shouta's head as he stared at the blank wall, the pain in his leg _finally_ dulling to a low throb he could more easily ignore. By some miracle he was alive, and based on Shigaraki's words it was clear that was purely so he could be gifted to the villain's kid brother. What was his name again, obviously Izu-something since Shigaraki called him Izu-chan... Ugh, he couldn't remember, it had been a long time since he'd heard it back at HQ. It didn't matter, he'd find out soon enough anyway.

He grimaced at the thought. He _really_ didn't want to find out what Shigaraki's brother was like, or just what made him so interested in Shouta in the first place, but he had no choice in the matter. More importantly though, Shigaraki's words made it quite clear that his life literally depended on this kid's interest in him. If he didn't meet "Izu-chan"'s expectations, then his life really _would_ be forfeit.

_Okay, so I need to get on the good side of this kid. He's supposed to be, what? Twelve? Thirteen? The reports said he looked like he was middle school age. How hard could it be to get his interest?_

He paused then, mind flitting back to a distant time many years ago when he and a certain blond were stuck with a crowd of bored-looking middle school students while police interviewed their teachers about a bomb threat at the school. "_Come on, Shou!_" his best friend goaded as the teens started to get more agitated with waiting around so long. "_Don't look so lost! You're a hero, and kids love that! Just smile and be yourself!_"

Shouta had done just as told, and the bored looks stopped. And then it was replaced by people yelling and crying, because apparently he had a terrifying smile.

His mind then flitted back to standing in the middle of a convenience store, Shouta turning just in time to see a teenage boy jolted and dragged his kid sister out the door. The panicked reaction had him looking for danger, before realizing he was the only one in the store besides the cashier. Then there was the time when he hadn't had coffee yet, and a pair of high school girls quickly crossed the street to get away from him... Or the time when he saved a high school student from a mugger, only for the kid to cry and beg him not to hurt him too...

_...Yeah, screw it. I'm doomed._

Aizawa Shouta quietly resigned himself to his impending death.

* * *

**First omake was inspired by a couple of comments on AO3. The second one... I've just had it in mind for a long time. If it's not obvious, I have a dark sense of humor sometimes. (Also, the mystery of Aiko and Aizawa's goggles continues. Confirming now, even other Izuku has no idea why she has them.)  
**

**You know, this scenario with Aizawa is easily one of my favorite parts of the whole fic. Not because I'm evil (though I kinda am), but just because it's so ridiculous that Shigaraki would gift Izuku his favorite hero as a pet. Literally _no one_ is happy about this but Shigaraki. At least Aizawa's alive, right? His broken leg is going to make rescuing him a lot harder though.  
**

**Question for next time: how do you think other Izuku would react to the bombs?**

**(Also: if I made a Discord server, would people be willing to join? Just curious because I love seeing people's speculation, and seeing commenters bounce theories back and forth on AO3. Plus I need more people to talk to about MHA and fan fics in general so yeah)**


	36. Chapter 36: Not-so-Wild Goose Chase

Chapter 36

.::Not-so-Wild Goose Chase::.

"...I'm guessing that's not him?" Akai didn't even sound like she expected any other answer, her tone only one degree away from sarcasm.

"No," Shouto confirmed anyway, and the snake-headed girl hung her head with a groan. Next to them Asui gave a soft croak, tilting her head at the person walking out of the grocery store. They had an obvious _peacock_ Quirk, complete with bright blue feathers and a ridiculously large fan of tail feathers that swept the snowy sidewalk behind them. As they walked to their car she pulled out her phone, and Shouto's burner soon dinged as she sent a message to the group text message.

'_This lead's a bust. Peacock Quirk._' A few seconds later a message from Kouda appeared, a simple dog emoji that looked particularly sad. Above them a bird gave a single caw, making them glance up to watch it circle a few times before it began flying away. "Come on," Asui said out loud, putting her phone away. "We still have a few more leads, kero."

"Yeah, I _guess_," Akai said with a melodramatic huff as they started walking down the sidewalk. Shouto trailed behind silently, giving the group text a final glance before slipping his phone into his pocket. This made three leads so far that had all fizzled out.

Despite the disappointment, Shouto thought things in Odawara might be looking up. Telling the runaways about his situation had been intimidating, since he knew how crazy it sounded. The way they excused themselves to talk in private had felt particularly ominous. Instead though, they'd been surprisingly receptive, and even offered to help him look for Gentle Criminal and Tokoyami with the use of Kouda's birds.

The only rule had been that he couldn't tell anyone else about his situation since they'd probably think he was crazy—which, fair enough.

Shouto didn't know who else they told about his situation yet beyond the four people there that day and Shiozaki and Kouda, but he couldn't argue. Trust was a commodity to be earned, and he had yet to fully prove himself. All of the runaways were understandably paranoid, so it wouldn't be wise to push.

For that same reason, he decided not to mention he knew Asui, Ojiro and Kouda as classmates in his own world. Something told him that admitting to knowing their names would just freak them out and make them more paranoid, even if they believed him. He didn't know _why_, it was just a gut feeling. For now he'd just gratefully accept their help. Having six more people helping really reassured him, and made him feel like he was making a lot of progress.

Mainly because Kouda's Quirk let him use local birds to search large areas. Now if only the birds could identify Tokoyami.

"I'm still surprised the birds can't tell what kind of bird mutations people have," Asui commented. "I know they're not as smart as humans even if Rockfish can talk to them, but I thought they would at least be able to tell if someone has a black bird head."

"I thought they could at least tell people's ages," Shouto admitted with a mild frown. He hadn't worked with Kouda in-depth during training, but he'd gotten the impression the boy could get a lot more detailed information from the birds than he'd been given here. He figured it wouldn't take too long to find a teenage boy with a bird head, but Shiozaki had texted them a photo of a woman carrying a _baby_ with a bird head.

"Birds are not always that smart," Akai said flatly. "Especially around here."

"Rockfish says most of the local birds think she's an old man," Asui added to Shouto, making the snake-headed girl _shriek_ with frustration and cover her face.

"_Don't tell him that!_" she whined, and Shouto blinked. Huh, was she embarrassed? Probably. Hard to tell with a face like that.

"Birds don't pay very close attention to humans," Asui continued. "Rockfish can tell them what to look for, but they don't notice things like types of clothing or people's ages or genders. He says Quirks make it more confusing for them too, since it causes so much variation."

"Ah." Shouto nodded in understanding. He'd never really thought about the difference between animal and human intelligences, and Quirks _did_ make things confusing. Come to think of it, he remembered Mineta whining about Kouda's pet rabbit thinking he was a child when he brought it to the common room one day. Something about him being so small compared to the rest of their class.

"Still," Akai said dryly, looking up at the bird that had been guiding them to the next lead. "You think they'd at least be able to tell if a bird is totally black. I still can't believe they called us out to check out a _flamingo_ Quirk." Shouto hummed and nodded in agreement. They'd checked out three people so far today, and none of them checked out. He'd hoped it would go pretty fast with Kouda's help, but apparently he had no such luck.

"Thank you again for the help," he said as they joined a small crowd waiting at a pedestrian crossing. They'd refused to let him go searching alone, so he felt mildly bad for having them both tag along on a so far pointless search.

"It's no problem," Asui assured him. "We have a lot of free time anyway, kero. It can get boring sometimes." That surprised him, but he supposed it made sense. It's not like they had school or anything like that to occupy them.

Before the conversation could continue he felt a vibration in his pocket, and he pulled out his original cell phone with a frown. Another call from the mysterious "D," making his frown grow as he let it ring out. "Not gonna answer?" Akai asked, and he shrugged while turning off the phone.

"I think it's that villain I woke up with," he explained, and paused as he noticed the two girls come to a sudden halt. He wasn't completely sure, but he thought their eyes were a bit wider than usual.

"..._What the actual hell?_" Akai asked, and he frowned, suddenly feeling a bit apprehensive.

"I don't know. I keep getting calls from 'D' and his name's Dabi, so I'm assuming it's him." Asui just tipped her head to the side, her index finger touching her chin.

"Why would a villain call you, kero?" she asked, and he shrugged.

"I'm not sure."

"Forget that, why would you _keep that phone_!?" Akai hissed, and he blinked before finally just shrugging. She made a strangled sound of frustration, while Asui continued to look at him thoughtfully.

"You never said how you know he's a villain," she commented, and the unspoken question made Shouto frown as he averted his gaze. Memories of the training camp came rushing back, his hands clenching at his sides as he remembered Dabi's cold blue eyes.

"...He attacked my class in my own world. He was part of a big group of villains, and helped kidnap one of my friends." He and Bakugou were friends, right? They'd bonded a good deal during their remedial license classes, so he figured they were. "I don't know much about him, but he's a cold-blooded murderer."

When he looked back he found both girls staring at him almost blankly, though again, that might just be his difficulty in reading their expressions. "...Okay, back up," Akai said. "You think he's a villain because he's a villain in _your_ world?"

Shouto blinked and nodded. "Yes," he replied simply, and Akai slapped a palm to her face.

"Seriously?" she grumbled under her breath, much to his confusion, before she pulled her hand away and asked, "Did this guy even _talk_ to you?" Shouto paused, thinking back.

"...He said 'morning, Shouto-chan,'" he recalled.

"Was it, like, in a threatening tone or something? Like, he was standing in the door with an evil smile, being really condescending and mocking?"

This time he shook his head. "No, he'd just woken up too. He smirked when he said it though. That's when I froze him and ran." Once again the girls just stared at him, and he began to shift uncomfortably under their combined stares. He had the distinct feeling they were judging him for something, but he didn't know what.

"...Unbelievable," Akai finally said, heaving a large sigh as her shoulders slumped, while next to her Asui just gave a quiet croak.

"Do you actually _know_ he's a villain here?" she asked, and the question made him pause, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"I... What? What do you mean?"

"You said Phantom Shadow is training to be a hero in your world, but here he works with Gentle Criminal," Asui pointed out. "So isn't it possible that Dabi might not be a villain in this world, kero?"

Shouto found himself struck speechless. That... had never occurred to him. Dabi had been so _menacing_, so obviously cruel and evil in his own world, that the possibility he might _not_ be a villain in this one hadn't crossed his mind. He'd just assumed, since he still looked so... you know, _villainous_. Shouto knew he shouldn't judge by appearances alone, but that smirk had been pretty creepy looking.

When he didn't speak Asui gave another croak. "It's just strange that you'd have a phone with his number in it, kero. And that you woke up next to him, and that he keeps calling you."

"Yeah," Akai agreed with a nod. "It sounds more like maybe you two might've been traveling together or something."

Once again Shouto was blown away. _That_ had definitely never occurred to him as even a _remote_ possibility. The idea of _willingly_ coexisting with Dabi, who had been so horrible and evil in his world—

"Do you think I'm a villain in this world?" he asked with growing horror. Had he been so repulsed by his father in this world that his counterpart had turned to villainy? Was _that_ why he'd gone to such efforts to disguise himself?

"...No, I don't think so," Asui said before his thoughts could spiral further. "I think you probably just ran away because you didn't feel safe, kero. And we still don't know if Dabi actually is a villain, so it's a stretch to assume you're a villain because you might have traveled together."

"Yeah," Akai agreed with a nod. "And no offense, but you don't seem like you'd be a criminal mastermind, especially if... uh, other you is like, uh, you."

That awkward comment made Shouto finally start to relax, willing his thoughts to slow. He still didn't know much about his counterpart's life, but hearing she didn't think he or his counterpart was capable of villainy was reassuring. Though their experiences might be different, his other self was still a version of him. Surely they wouldn't be _too_ different.

"Thank you," he told Akai earnestly, offering her a small smile. She just stared at him for a moment before sighing and muttering something under his breath he couldn't hear, which left him confused again. Once again, he felt like he'd missed _something_.

"If you were a villain, I think we'd have heard about you by now anyway," Asui added, drawing his attention back to her. "Your Quirk is very powerful and distinct, so I think you'd stand out. What is Dabi's Quirk, by the way?" Shouto paused, racking his memories for it.

"He can make blue fire," he responded. Once again the girls just stared at him, making him frown. "What?" The girls exchanged looks, seeming to communicate something.

"...Forget it," Akai said. "C'mon, we've wasted enough time. Let's go check the next lead." Shouto's face smoothed as he nodded, and the trio set off to resume following Kouda's bird.

* * *

Ochako stared at the laptop screen in shock, just processing Deku's message. Last night she and Deku had secretly made extra FacePage accounts to communicate beyond the burner phone Aiko promised to get her, wanting an extra way to talk without her knowing—_especially_ about Aizawa-sensei. Thankfully Aiko didn't seem like the type to snoop in Deku's room or his laptop here.

About two hours after he left, Aiko went to the store to grab some stuff so Ochako used the chance to check it. She'd logged in to find a long string of messages waiting for her describing the latest situation with Aizawa-sensei, and just... _wow_. She cringed at how Shigaraki described him as a "_pet,_" knowing their teacher would _not_ like that.

'_Kacchan and Hijack think telling him everything right off the bat won't be a good idea,_' Deku wrote at the end. '_I mentioned maybe giving him the letter, but they said he'd probably think it was fake. What do you think?_' Ochako grimaced as she mulled over it before typing her response.

'_I think they're right. He's always been kinda naturally suspicious, and I don't think most people would believe you about the random amnesia thing._' While Deku didn't have the letter on him he'd described the contents to her, and it sounded pretty weird and unbelievable even to her. As an afterthought she added, '_And he doesn't know what you're like outside episodes, so that might just make him even MORE suspicious._'

She couldn't think of much else to add at the moment, so she pushed the chair back to turn to survey the room. She hadn't looked around too much last night because they had other priorities and she'd slept in a different room, but she was really curious because she'd recognized a poster for one of the Nabu heroes she'd found online. That made her realize that some of the merch would be for heroes _exclusive_ to this world.

The thought made her vibrate with anticipation, and she hopped to her feet to begin looking at the merchandise real closely. Any information would be valuable, and even if she couldn't tell if they were just more obscure, it'd at least be good to confirm familiar heroes that might still be active. For example, she saw a poster for Present Mic's show, and also one for Fatgum, and that was useful to know, right?

Also, she was just _curious_. She'd never seen so much hero merch outside a store!

Ochako took her time perusing the posters and figures, keeping one ear open for a message notification from the still-open laptop. It didn't take long to realize the merchandise had been loosely organized, grouping rescue heroes in one area, people who regularly made the Top 10 in others, etc. As expected, some of the heroes were absolutely unfamiliar, but there were plenty more she knew.

At one point she stopped short at a corner with a seemingly random assortment of heroes, but a grouping she recognized instantly. It was all UA teachers. Nedzu, Power Loader, Snipe and Ectoplasm—there were a few others too that never taught their classes, but who she still recognized from seeing around campus. He even had one for Recovery Girl and Lunch Rush from some big disaster relief event.

The sight surprised her, and for a second she puzzled over the absence of teachers like Aizawa or Midnight. Okay, so maybe Aizawa-sensei wouldn't have merchandise, but Present Mic and Thirteen had some in other parts of the room. It was weird they weren't there. Then she realized these must be the teachers from _before_ UA closed, and any traces of a good mood instantly vanished.

_Right, UA didn't exist anymore in this world._ The abrupt reminder made Ochako's heart sink, a pang of homesickness washing over her.

She spun sharply on her heel, searching the room for something else to distract herself. Soon enough her eyes lit up on a piece of paper on the wall, much smaller than the colorful posters, and what looked like... crayon? She approached curiously, confirming it to be a drawing just as she suspected.

Six figures stood there, more detailed than stick figures but still obviously drawn by a small child. Given this was Deku's room, he must have been the artist. The two largest ones had be his parents, judging by the woman's green hair and the man's much spikier hair. The smaller figure next to his mom with spiky green hair must be Deku. So it was a family portrait, then?

If it was, it didn't make sense though. Directly next to Izuku was another figure obviously meant to be a girl since it had a dress, drawn halfway between his height and his parents. That was all she could tell though, because a black crayon had been used to scribble over her. Beneath that Ochako could see multiple colors in the hair, and the one eye _might_ be green...?

The sight confused her, because as far as she knew Deku was an only child. He'd never said so directly, but he had mentioned in the past that he usually spent holidays alone with his mom since his dad spent most of his time overseas for work. If he had a sister, _surely_ it would have come up in conversation at some point, right? But even then, why would he scribble over someone?

Her frown only grew as she looked at the two figures on the mystery girl's other side. They looked different from the rest, obviously drawn later based on the slightly more advanced art style, but Deku still would have been young. One was another female, with black hair and dark blue eyes, while the other had a head of light blue hair and red eyes. He was shorter than the dark-haired female and scribbled-out girl, but still taller than Deku.

No matter how Ochako looked at it, those had to be Shigaraki and Aiko. He must have added them later after he started living with the Alliance, which meant other Deku had held onto the drawing even after running away. It kinda made sense, given everything that happened, but she felt just slightly weirded out by it.

_Maybe it IS a family portrait after all...?_

An electronic ding interrupted her thoughts, and she darted back to the laptop to find Deku had responded. '_You're probably right. I just passed on your message to Kacchan (he says hi by the way!), and he says the only reason he and Hijack trust me is because we interacted even before my latest episode. I guess they talked a bit after I left yesterday, and Hijack told him he would have thought I might change my mind about wanting to escape or have a totally different personality outside my episodes. Eraserhead doesn't know me at all so he might think the same way._'

Despite the grim nature of the message, Ochako's mouth twitched into a smile at the length. Even over text, Deku tended to ramble a lot. She could see three dots below the it showing he was typing something else, so she quickly typed up her own response before his ramble could continue.

'_That sounds right to me. He's kind of a suspicious guy in general so telling him everything will probably make him feel like it's a trap. You just need to take it slow for now, and give him a chance to know the real Deku!_' The typing notification vanished for several seconds after she hit send, and then reappeared for only a few seconds before a new message appeared.

'_But who IS the real Deku?_'

Her smile faded, her mood sinking once more. Ochako tried not to think about it much, but they still knew next to nothing about their counterparts. She still had no idea how other Ochako would feel about this whole runaway business, about everything that happened. All she could do was hope the other girl would understand once this was all sorted out.

For Deku it must be even worse though, because he lived with _villains_. No way was his counterpart totally squeaky-clean; even if he didn't participate in their activities, they must have rubbed off on him in _some_ way. But even knowing that, she couldn't see him being mean or cruel like Shigaraki, or even affably evil like Kurogiri. When she tried to picture a villain Deku, it just... didn't compute.

He was just too inherently _good_.

She sucked in a sharp breath, steeling her nerves before she resumed typing. '_I don't know, but I can't see you EVER being a villain or evil or anything like that. And if Bakugou and Hijack trust you now even after meeting you outside episodes, then you must be good, right?_'

Several long seconds passed after she hit send, and then the dots appeared again.

'_I guess so. Thanks Uraraka._'

She broke into a beaming smile, and sent him a few happy emojis. After that Deku had to go talk to Shinsou again—he wasn't allowed to have his phone or laptop around him, though he'd been able to get away with it slightly with Bakugou—so they made plans to talk later after dinner. As Deku's profile went offline Ochako switched to another tab with the now very-familiar profile for Alien Queen Pink.

This was the other reason they made extra FacePage accounts. They _knew_ this might very well be _their_ Ashido, but Ochako couldn't message her from her Infinity Girl account now that heroes had gotten into it. They'd brainstormed how to get in touch with her and _only_ her, and had spent a lot of time trying to figure out good usernames. They wanted their names to be obvious to other people from Class 1-A, but also not give away their actual identities if police or heroes found them.

Deku had it pretty easy, just using "Deku_Breaks_Bones" since _any_ of their classmates would recognize that. Anyone searching for Deku would find it pretty fast. Ochako's had been a bit harder though, since most of the ideas involved her Quirk or her Hero name, which partially incorporated her _real_ name. Ultimately they settled on "1-A_SpaceRescueHero" to reference her costume's space motif, her plans to be a rescue hero, and of course Class 1-A itself.

Now that she'd gotten an update from Deku about Aizawa-sensei, getting in touch with Ashido seemed more urgent than ever. She hovered over the friend request button and hit _send_ before turning around and getting up. Ashido should be in class right now, so she decided to take another look at the hero merch.

Unknown to her, it would be several days before she finally got a reply.

Miles away in Kamino at that very moment, one Ashido Mina stared slack-jawed at a news article which showed photos of two vigilantes with 1-A emblazoned across their backs. As she stared at those costumes—so _very similar_ to two costumes she knew very well—she felt her lips curl up in an almost manic grin.

She wasn't alone, there were at least two more people here.

And she needed to let them know ASAP.

* * *

**To everyone who predicted Ashido would be the first one to find the 1-A Vigilantes: give yourself a cookie. The girl's basically on lockdown with nothing else to do but look on the internet, so it was only a matter of time. ****Also: I _really_ love writing Todoroki interacting with the runaways. He's so oblivious to so many things.**

**Last time I asked if people would be willing to join a Discord server. Well, I got a few people who said they'd be willing to, so I made one! Can't link it on FF, but if you know how the discord links usually work (note: it usually has .gg, not .com at the end), the last part of it is 6WWwTXU. I look forward to seeing people there!  
**

**Question for next time: Besides Izuku, which alternate character would cause the most chaos if they showed up in the canon world?  
**


	37. Chapter 37: Real Talk Time

Chapter 37

.::Real Talk Time::.

Shouta opened his eyes when he heard the door open, the noise rousing him from his uneasy sleep. By his estimates a couple of hours had passed since Shigaraki's brother left, most of it spent trying to ignore the pain in his leg and nap. When he turned his head he spied the kid—Izuku, apparently—scurry inside holding a book and a plate with a sandwich on it. "Um, I got lunch," he said lamely. "Uh, d-do I have to help you eat it, or..."

"Just leave it on the floor," Shouta sighed, carefully sitting up. This wouldn't be the first time he'd eaten without use of his arms, and getting hand-fed by a kid would be a wound to his pride. At least the sandwich would be simple and clean enough to eat.

The kid must agree, because though he grimaced he set down the tray by him and quickly retreated to a corner to read. Shouta eyed Izuku warily as he moved closer to the plate, his mind racing and analyzing the teenager. He very pointedly avoided looking at Shouta as he ate, and the few times he glanced over he would quickly wince and return his attention to his book.

So far, Izuku did not meet his expectations. He thought Shigaraki's brother would be relatively twisted due to his upbringing, or at least used to scenes like captured heroes with broken legs. Instead the boy showed minimal hostility; if anything, he seemed uncomfortable with the situation, or at least unsure how to handle it. Shouta had only spent probably a cumulative ten minutes around the kid at this point, but he could already tell Izuku lacked his elder brother's malicious streak.

It was unexpected, but not unwelcome. If he was as nervous as he appeared, then Shouta could potentially use that to his advantage to get out of the situation.

If Shouta was going to survive this, he _needed_ to get on this kid's good side. Not just because of Shigaraki's implied threat that he would be killed if the kid didn't like him, but because this might be his only way out. His previous captors had no interest in talking to him beyond beating and questioning him, so there had been no value in trying to establish a rapport with them.

Stockholm syndrome might be more famous, but Shouta knew that the attachment could go both ways. If he could get this kid to like him, he might be able to earn some small freedoms that could ultimately work towards escaping.

"I didn't think Shigaraki's brother would care about heroes," he commented once he finished eating, breaking the silence. To his faint amusement Izuku jumped in surprise, fumbling to catch his book as it slipped out of his hands. Wide, green eyes turned towards him, before Izuku quickly swallowed and averted his gaze.

"Um, y-yeah... Heroes are just, really cool, you know?" Shouta raised an eyebrow at the comment, familiar with the admiration but not expecting it from _this_ kid of all people.

"And I'm your favorite?" he asked, and the boy flinched, his cheeks coloring.

"Um, I g-guess?" he stammered anxiously, not looking at him. Shouta kept his expression cool as he considered his next question. The wrong thing could end up making his position worse, but more than that he needed to try to get information, if only for his own peace of mind.

"How did you even hear about me?" he asked casually, grunting as he shifted to sit up. His broken leg ached a bit of course, but he ignored it. "I try to keep a low profile, I'm surprised anyone knows my name." The boy paused, glancing at him with a frown.

"I... How did I hear about you?" he mumbled, a distant look in his eyes. "I mean, I looked at my notebooks earlier and I wrote about you in what would be middle school—well, if I'd actually gone to one, I mean—so I knew about you at least two years now. But you don't go in the spotlight much, even less than other heroes, so there's not really any records compared to them... It might've just been word of mouth, like, people complaining about you, and then I got excited and started researching you..."

As he mumbled to himself Shouta just listened silently, analyzing his words closely. From the sounds of it, the kid didn't actually _remember_ how he learned about him. He filed that information away to contemplate later, deciding to steer the kid's rambling back on topic.

"Then why am I your favorite?" he asked bluntly, skipping straight to the point. Izuku jolted, jarred from his mumbling, and looked at him in surprise before his eyes seemed to glaze and he grew contemplative once more.

Izuku, as a dimension-traveler, would say the reason was just that Eraserhead was Aizawa-sensei. They had been through a lot together, and he'd learned to count on the man to keep him and his classmates safe, even at the risk of his own life. Even now, seeing his teacher restrained and looking at him with the eyes of a total stranger who didn't know him, his presence made Izuku feel safe. In a world without All Might, Aizawa had definitely earned that spot.

But he couldn't say that, and he couldn't say for sure why this world's Izuku liked Eraserhead either. But if he had to guess...

"It's because, your Quirk is Erasure, right?" he asked after a few moments, his eyes losing that distant gleam as if snapping back to reality. "It's just, erasing people's Quirks, right? But it's only temporary, and it's got a lot of limitations, like it can't work on mutations, and you need to be looking at them."

Shouta's eyes narrowed at the accuracy of the description, wondering how he had so many details, but he nodded anyway and the kid pushed on. "It's not a combat-oriented Quirk on its own, it's something that would probably work better as support. But you—you don't let that stop you. You trained to fill in the gap with your own skills, designed your persona and fighting style to optimize the surprise element and take on all kinds of Quirks. You basically fight Quirkless, and I just—"

He paused briefly then, glancing down at his hands. "...We don't really have heroes of our own," he finally said, voice barely audible.

Shouta's eyes widened at the quiet admission, recognizing the hidden truth within his words. _He was Quirkless._ That information was new. How did a Quirkless kid end up in the Villain Alliance? Was he actually Shigaraki's biological brother after all? The probability seemed more likely now, since he couldn't imagine why else the Alliance would take in a Quirkless kid. Especially when he and Shigaraki were obviously so close.

That _did_ explain why Shigaraki didn't worry about leaving them alone together though. There wouldn't be a point in using Erasure on someone without a Quirk, even if Shouta wasn't the type of person to attack a kid anyway. Not that he _could_, with his hands bound behind him and all. Which reminded him, he _really_ wanted this stuff off, but it was too soon to ask the boy to try to remove it.

He needed to take his time, try to establish some form of rapport between them and get a feel for the kid's personality before making any big moves like that. Fortunately for him, the kid had given him a perfect opportunity.

"So you're Quirkless," he said, and noted how the boy flinched. "If you're looking for a role model, I'm the wrong Pro. You should be looking at Rare."

"Rare?" The boy perked up, looking at him in surprise. "I've never heard of them, who's that?"

"The first Quirkless hero." Izuku startled at that, his jaw dropping open.

"Wait—wha—?" He sputtered in shock, eyes large and disbelieving.

"To be fair, she wasn't common knowledge," Shouta continued nonchalantly. "She was an underground hero active when I first started out. She was a genius who used support gear to simulate Quirks, most people didn't know she was Quirkless. I only know because I interned under her during my final year. She retired a couple of months before All Might died, got in a car crash and couldn't work anymore." She ultimately died from those injuries, but he saw no reason to mention that.

Izuku was silent now, just staring at him in even more shock. Shouta didn't blame him, it wasn't every day a Quirkless kid heard of a Pro Hero just like them. Rare had kept her Quirkless status as secret as possible and kept a low profile, not wanting to get involved in activism or become sort of symbol against discrimination since that recognition would diminish her ability to do her job. She had been well-respected in the underground hero community though, known to be a talented tactician and fighter who could keep up with the best of them.

Rumor had it that even _Endeavor_ respected her, the two having worked together on a human trafficking case shortly before her death. At the very least he'd shown up at her funeral, which had been quite the surprise. It had been a small affair, mostly family and a few colleagues, so to see the then-Number Two Hero show up to pay his respects had nearly caused Rare's grieving mother to faint.

"I wonder," Izuku finally said, gaze falling to his lap. "If she..." He trailed off then, letting the thought hang in the air unfinished. After a long while he looked up, smiling at Shouta almost sadly. "Thanks for telling me about her. I never would have imagined there was a Quirkless Pro. You said you interned under her? Can you tell me more?"

Shouta sighed quietly as he nodded. "Yeah, sure." Telling him wouldn't do any harm. After all, she was dead now. And besides, maybe hearing about a good influence would make him more amenable to leaving this place.

* * *

Mina was going to _explode_.

Hands-down, she would absolutely blow up in the next five minutes if she didn't do _something_, she was too full of energy to stop pacing around her apartment. Kirishima looked a bit uncomfortable watching her walk in circles around the couch where he sat, his legs folded onto the cushions to keep them out of her way.

"Uh, Ashido, are you okay?" he asked, and she whirled to face him.

"I'm awful and better than okay!" she responded with a grin, and he blinked.

"That... doesn't make sense though?" he said timidly, and she bobbed her head.

"I _know_!" she proclaimed cheerfully, and then resumed her frantic pacing with a pensive frown. She felt _great_, but she also felt _awful_ and _anxious_ and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Well, no, there was _one_ thing, but she couldn't actually do it on her own.

Jirou and Kaminari were _here_. She had absolutely zero doubts that they were the 1-A Vigilantes. The article had popped up in her phone's feed randomly, maybe because she'd spent so much time looking up heroes from her own world lately, and since then she couldn't get them out of her mind. Those costumes were so _similar_ to her classmates, down to the gauntlets on Jirou's gloves.

Also, she'd heard Jirou call Kaminari "Taser-brain" like three different times in training. That name was _totally_ from Jirou calling him that in the field to get his attention than something he'd pick for himself.

But even if she knew they existed, she couldn't contact them. She'd searched FacePage endlessly and couldn't find either of their personal accounts. She found a few fan pages for the 1-A Vigilantes, and a couple that even claimed to _be_ them, but she couldn't tell if any _actually_ belonged to them. It's not like they had any pictures that she couldn't find on other people's social media or news articles.

At this point she felt like her best bet would be to go to Hosu herself, but she couldn't _do_ that because she was under house arrest!

Mina wanted to _scream_, but she knew that would just get Oracle all freaked out because he was guarding her and all that. So she did the next best thing and texted her friends to text-scream at them. Kiri had come over pretty much right away because the string of random letters freaked him out, and since then he'd been watching her frantically pace around the apartment. He looked really worried as she passed him on her tenth lap around the couch, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

A knock on the door interrupted her desperate pacing, and she practically flew over to fling it open. There stood a weirdly wet-looking Kumiko and Anjou, Kumiko looking a bit cool (and maybe a little pissed) while Anjou just raised a single hand in greeting. "Yo," she said with a nod and held up her bag. "I brought all the homework and notes you missed."

In other circumstances Mina would probably whine at that last part, but for now she just stepped aside. "Just get in here!" she said, quickly ushering the pair inside and peeking outside to make sure Oracle hadn't followed them before closing the door.

"How did you guys get here already?" Kiri asked from the couch as they removed their shoes. "It's only third period! And also, uh... why do you guys look wet?"

"Anjou got school canceled early," Kumiko responded dryly.

"No, Nijisaki in my second period class got it canceled," Anjou corrected. "He was freaking out over a test this afternoon and looking for an excuse to get out of it. I just asked him to get school canceled instead of faking he was sick. He has some kind of smoke Quirk, so he used it to trigger the sprinklers."

"I hate you," Kumiko seethed, stalking to Mina's bedroom. "Mina, I am borrowing your clothes!"

"Okay!" Mina agreed quickly. She didn't mind, but she also just wanted Kumiko to be a little less mad at her. She could tell her best friend was still a bit pissed for what she did on Friday, and Mina _hated_ having Kumiko mad at her. "An-chan, you can borrow something too."

"Thanks," Anjou said, dropping her bag by the door and following Kumiko.

Five minutes later both Kumiko and Anjou returned to the living room in their borrowed clothes. Mina and Kumiko were similar enough in size that she had no problem finding a shirt and sweatpants that fit, but Anjou was a bit smaller than Mina. The t-shirt she wore was definitely baggy on her, and maybe none of the pants fit because she opted for a long skirt instead.

"Okay, we're here and we're not dripping wet anymore," Kumiko said, crossing her arms as she stood by the couch. "Now explain what's up with the keyboard mashing." Mina nodded, fidgeting nervously with the hem of her shirt as she averted her gaze, feeling suddenly weirdly anxious and unable to talk.

Now that they were finally _here_, she realized she had no idea how to even talk about this. There was just so much to talk about, she had no idea where to even start.

_Screw it._ Overthinking this would waste way too much time. _Just get it all out at once._ She nodded to herself, firming her resolve as much as she could. "Okay, so, I haven't been totally honest with you," she began anxiously, and she could see them all tense at that. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to look at them again. "I don't _really_ have sudden amnesia. I'm actually from another dimension."

Total silence followed this proclamation, three perfectly blank faces staring at her. "What," Kiri finally said.

"It's true!" Mina exploded. "One day I went to sleep in the dorms and I just woke up here and I have no idea how it happened but it _did_ and everything is different and wrong here, the first thing I saw after waking up was smoke from a villain attack and apparently that's _normal_, and then I got online and UA is gone and so is All Might and every time I look stuff up online it just gets _worse and worse_! I had no idea what was going on and I still don't but I thought maybe it would fade away after a while so I tried to just wait it out but it _didn't_ and—"

"Mina, stop with the word vomit!" Kumiko almost yelled, and Mina obediently clamped her mouth shut. Her best friend just pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly taking a few seconds to try to process it. "Okay, I got the 'I'm from another dimension' bit and something about dorms and smoke, but literally nothing else makes sense to me."

"Uh, could you maybe try again?" Kiri asked tentatively. "And do it, uh, _slower_ this time?" Mina nodded, taking a deep breath as she tried to organize her thoughts. Yeah, she should probably try to figure out a less messy way to explain it.

"Okay, so remember that day that I didn't show up to school, and school got canceled anyway because of that villain attack?" she asked, and the others slowly nodded. "That's when I woke up here. I was super-confused because I don't recognize anything here, and whenever I looked up stuff on my phone everything was different, like UA is gone which is so _weird_ and freaky, then I saw Kiri and I was so relieved but his hair was _black_—"

"Mina, rambling," Kumiko cut in, and Mina promptly stopped talking with a sharp nod.

"Uh, what's so weird about me having black hair?" Kiri asked now that she'd gone quiet, and she whirled to face him with sparkling eyes.

"You dyed it red when we got into UA as a promise you're a manly man!" Okay, maybe not that _exactly_, but it was obviously a real character building moment so close enough.

"Wait, is that why you're so obsessed with manliness now?"

"_Yes!_" she exclaimed in exasperation. "You're all about manliness and being a hero back in our world, but here you're like you were in middle school, but _worse_ somehow!"

"Gee, thanks," he muttered with a grimace, and Mina winced guiltily. Oops, now that she thought about it, that sounded _really_ bad.

"Sorry Kiri," she said. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that. You're getting better though, so don't worry about it! Like on Friday, you running in to help save that guy was so cool and awesome!"

"Back up," Anjou said. For once she had her full attention focused on Mina with no sign of her phone, just looking at her intently. "What was that about UA?"

"Kiri and I are both in the hero course!" Mina said as she spun to face her. "That's why I was so excited to see him at first, but then I realized he didn't recognize me! So I had no idea what was going on, just that everything's different here. I thought maybe it'd wear off but it never did, and I didn't know what to do. But _then_ Infinity Girl found me on FacePage and I'm like ninety-nine percent sure she's Uraraka, because my FacePage name is based on my hero name there! Well, the Pinkie part anyway. I originally wanted to go with Alien Queen but Midnight-sensei said that was too villainous."

"Uh, who's Midnight?" Kirishima cut in, and Mina turned to him with her jaw hanging open in horror. How couldn't he know her!?

"Isn't she that hero who got in trouble for basically trying to be a nudist as her costume?" Anjou asked, and Mina had to pause to think on it.

"I don't know, but probably." Mina didn't know that one for sure, but that _definitely_ sounded like something Midnight would do. But _still_, how could they not know her—_oh_. "Oh yeah," she said aloud, "she said she had to basically stop being public a while back, so I guess you guys wouldn't know her since she was the R-rated hero."

"And she told you that... when?" Kumiko asked slowly, and Mina froze.

"...She _might_ have come with a detective to talk to me about Uraraka," she admitted. "And I'm probably not supposed to tell anyone."

"And yet, you're telling us," Anjou deadpanned, and Mina threw up her arms.

"Gah! We're getting off-topic!"

"Is there even a topic?" Kiri muttered, and Mina spun to glare at him.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean!?"

"It means you sound _freaking crazy_," Kumiko answered before he could, and Mina turned to gape at her best friend as Kumiko put a hand on her hip. "Mina, are you even hearing yourself right now? Another dimension? UA? Heroes who don't even exist anymore? Do you have any idea how _insane_ this all sounds!?"

The heat in Kumiko's voice made something snap in Mina, and her own face twisted into a furious scowl as she glared. "I _know_ it sounds crazy!" she countered. "Why do you think I just said I had amnesia!? Even I know that's way more believable than I'm from _another world_!"

"Then how can you actually believe this!?" Kumiko snapped back. "Mina, multiverse stuff is, like, sci-fi! Emphasis on the _fi_! What are the chances a Quirk like that actually exists! You're obviously under the effects of some _other_ Quirk screwing with your memories!"

"I'm not!" Mina roared, stamping her foot.

"You don't even have any proof!"

"I do too! I already _told_ you, Infinity Girl found me randomly on a profile I made using my _hero name ideas_, the very next day after I made that profile! She's _got_ to be Uraraka!"

"_We don't even know who Uraraka is!_" Kumiko all but roared.

"Uraraka Ochako!" Mina snapped. "We called her Infinity Girl because on the first day of classes she threw a baseball with her Quirk and it just kept going and Aizawa-sensei's tracker-thing just had an infinity symbol! This Infinity Girl said she has some kind of gravity Quirk too, and there's no way that's a coincidence!"

"If she's _really_ from your world, then why didn't she ask you about it!? Hell, why didn't _you_!?"

"_I don't know!_" Mina exploded, throwing up her arms with a frustrated shout. "I was just scared that maybe I was wrong and I didn't want to freak her out if I was, but then she ran away and ever since then I've been even _more_ sure, except now I _can't even ask her_! I don't know why she didn't ever talk to me about it though!"

"Or _maybe_ she's the one who planted these memories in you!" Kumiko yelled. "Maybe she ran away so she could help people get ready to _kidnap you_!"

"No way! That's not true!"

"_It makes more sense than you coming from another—_"

"GUYS, STOP!"

They both startled as Kiri's voice rang through the room, and they whirled to see him standing up from the couch with an almost desperate-looking frown. "Just—stop shouting at each other!" he rushed out in an almost panicked hiss, his voice pitched quieter but still high with anxiety. "You two fighting like that isn't helping! Seriously, look at Anjou!"

"An-cha... _oh_." Mina turned to look and promptly felt her stomach sink as she saw Anjou standing with her hands pressed over both ears and her eyes screwed shut. Several seconds passed in total silence as they all stared at her, watching her breathe heavily through her nose, before she finally opened her eyes and lowered her hands.

"_Not cool,_" she growled. "You guys _know_ I get sensory overload when people start yelling all at once like that." Mina and Kumiko both flinched guiltily, because they _did_ know it. It hadn't happened since Mina came here, but Anjou had told her about that specifically just to remind her not to get _too_ loud if they were in smaller rooms.

"I'm so sorry, An-chan," she said miserably. "I didn't mean to get that loud."

"Me too," Kumiko agreed quickly. "Even if Mina's being totally crazy—"

"_No,_" Anjou cut in sharply, and this time it was Kumiko's turn to close her mouth. "Stop saying insults and spouting judgy bullshit like that, you'll just start fighting again."

"She's right," Kiri agreed with a nod. "I mean, yeah Ashido sounds crazy, but we _really_ shouldn't be fighting right now. That won't help anything." He turned to her with a frown, adding, "But Ashido, if you've believed all this for this long, why are you telling us _now_?"

Mina perked up at that, grateful for the subject change. "Because today I found out we're _definitely_ not the only ones!" she answered. "Just—_look!_" She whipped out her phone and showed them the article that had gotten her so worked up: the article about the 1-A Vigilantes, complete with the photo showing off the 1-A on their backs.

She stood expectantly as they all leaned forward to look at the phone, practically _vibrating_ with anticipation. "Mina," Kumiko finally said after a few seconds. "Your screen's too small for us to all see."

"Uh, could you maybe just text it to us?" Kiri suggested, and Mina pouted over ruining the dramatic moment, but quickly did just that. Soon enough the other three had opened the article on their own phones while Mina quickly launched into more explanations.

"Those two are totally Jirou and Kaminari from my class!" she told them as they looked at it. "Those costumes are like dead ringers for theirs, down to the gear! I've even heard Jirou call Kaminari taser-brain in training a couple times! I bet she just called him that while they were taking down a bad guy and everyone thought that was his official vigilante name or something!"

"Well, that answers who's who," Anjou muttered under her breath.

"And that 1-A on their backs—_we're_ in Class 1-A back at home!" Mina barreled on eagerly. "They're totally trying to get the attention of everyone else who might've come over too! There's just too much stuff for it to all be a coincidence!"

"Or they're part of whatever group messed with your memories," Kumiko muttered, and Mina shot her a furious scowl.

"Actually, this seems like it'd be kinda a lot if they're trying to kidnap just one person," Kiri piped up before she could respond. "I mean, it made sense when it was _just_ Infinity Girl, but now we've got _three_ people Ashido thinks are from this other dimension? Doesn't that seem a bit, I don't know, _much_ if they're after just one person?"

Kumiko wavered a bit at that. "Mina's Quirk is pretty strong, though," she muttered, but it sounded pretty weak and doubtful. Next to her Anjou hummed, her gaze focused on her phone.

"Ashido, what other students are in your class at UA?" she asked, and Mina perked up, always eager to talk all about her UA friends to her other-universe friends.

"Okay, so there's twenty of us total. Along with me and Kiri, and obviously Uraraka and Kaminari and Jirou, there's also Yaomomo, Iida, Midoriya, Tsu-chan—"

"Just so you know, those names mean nothing to us," Kumiko deadpanned, and Mina shot her an irritated scowl but ultimately conceded the point.

"Okay, fine. Starting over, Yaomomo is Yaoyorozu Momo, she's like super rich. Iida—Iida Tenya—is the class rep and Ingenium's brother—and by the way, in our world Ingenium got paralyzed by Stain so now Iida's Ingenium instead—"

"Okay, that last part's actually _really freaky_, but I have no idea who Stain is," Kiri cut in awkwardly.

"Me neither," Kumiko agreed, and Mina gawked at them. She turned to look at Anjou to see if the name meant anything to her, but the teal-haired girl just looked at her with narrowed eyes, turquoise pupils boring into Mina.

"And Midoriya?" she asked, and Mina blinked before nodding.

"Right. Midoriya Izuku. He's green and cute and made of sunshine, and he also breaks his arms a lot. Tsu-chan, Asui Tsuyu, is this frog girl, and she's really cool and collected all the time and super-blunt but really nice. Then there's Bakugou, Bakugou Katsuki. He's always kinda grumpy and scowl-y, but you're his best friend Kiri!" She beamed at him, but deflated when he didn't really react beyond just staring at her.

"Anyone else?" Anjou asked, and Mina blinked again before refocusing on the task.

"Well, let's see... I mentioned all of the Bakusquad, and most of the girls, so... Oh, there's Tooru-chan, Hagakure Tooru, who's super fun and invisible all the time. She basically has no costume, just gloves and boots, haha! You should've seen her exam with Snipe-sensei, it was hilarious! Oh, and she's best friends with Ojiro Mashirao, who's got a tail and is a total martial arts master. His costume is just basically a—I think you call it a gi? _Oh, oh!_ And Kouda!" She perked up at the last name and broke into a grin. "He can talk to animals and has the _sweetest_ pet bunny rabbit!"

She lit up at the memory of holding Kouda's rabbit in the common room the day before this mess began. The rabbit had been so sweet and soft, and Mina had cuddled it for a good fifteen minutes. Ojiro and Tooru-chan had to pry it from her arms to return to Kouda, and she would've followed him back to his dorm if Midoriya had not intercepted her and mentioned Satou was making some dessert bread in the kitchen.

She perked up even more at that memory, her mouth salivating. "Oh my gosh, and Satou makes the _best_ desserts," she said dreamily. "I have no idea what that thing he made was that last night, but it was _amazing_. Even Todoroki was smiling, and he like, _never_ does that!"

"Wait, Todoroki like _Endeavor_ Todoroki?" Kumiko piped up with wide eyes, and Mina bobbed her head vigorously.

"Yeah! Well, his kid anyway. His name's Todoroki Shouto, and he's got this crazy hair that's split down the middle, it's totally red on one side and white on the other! I don't think he likes his dad though, so if you ever meet him, uh, don't call him Endeavor's kid," she added sheepishly, losing some of her steam.

"What's his Quirk like?" Anjou asked, and Mina pursed her lips.

"It's called Half-Hot, Half-Cold I think? Like, so basically he's got both fire and ice, right? But he can only use each one with half of his body. The fire's on the red half, the left, and the ice is with his right half. And it's so _strong_!" she added with wide eyes. "During the Sports Festival he went up against Sero first, and Sero couldn't even do anything! Todoroki just went _woosh_ and suddenly there was a gigantic iceberg that was taller than the stadium!"

"_Woah,_" Kiri breathed, awestruck and wide-eyed.

"If you think it sounds awesome, you can't even imagine it!" Mina told him excitedly. "The cameras couldn't even get all of it, it was so _big_!"

"That sounds cool, but is it really possible for someone to have a Quirk with two elements like that?" Kumiko asked skeptically. "I mean, I guess it _might_ be, but even if he's the son of the Number One Hero, isn't it a bit much for one half to be that strong?"

"Number One...?" Mina turned to look at her blankly before it clicked and she slumped dejectedly. "Oh right, All Might's dead in this world." That made Kiri and Kumiko startle.

"Wait, are you saying he's _alive_ in this other world!?" Kumiko yelped, and Mina nodded, her mood a bit more subdued compared to before.

"Yeah, but he just retired a couple months ago. He used up all his power in this gigantic fight, and now he's got this super-skinny skeleton form. He looks _so different_, guys," she confided with wide eyes. "The first few Heroics classes we had with him after that we were all worried that we'd knock him down with just the wind from Iida running! And one time Iida actually _did_ knock him down, but the wind knocked down all of us though so, yeah. But Ojiro had to help him up!"

"Wait, back up again," Kiri said. "What do you mean, 'heroics classes'?" Once again Mina paused, and she felt herself grow sheepish and awkward.

"Oh, right. So, uh, All Might's kinda our Heroics teacher at UA." Dead silence followed that as everyone stared at her with their eyes bugging out, even the usually deadpan Anjou looking wide-eyed and shocked.

"...Mina," Kumiko finally said. "Someone is _definitely_ screwing with your memories. There's no way that's possibly true."

"It _is_!" Mina whined, whirling to face her with a scowl. "Ugh, this is why I didn't tell any of you right away! You're never going to believe me!"

"Actually, I think I might," Anjou interjected calmly, and Mina started to say something only to freeze as she processed the words. Even Kiri and Kumiko turned to look at Anjou in shock, while Mina felt her biggest grin yet split across her face.

Just like that, light had finally shined upon her world once more.

* * *

**And Ashido is officially the second person to break and tell people everything! And unlike Todoroki, her audience isn't afraid to call her out.  
**

**Little bonus note on Rare: I imagine she could exist in the canon/prime universe too (Izuku was wondering that when he said "I wonder if she..."), and in both worlds she died from that car crash. She got her start making support gear, and figured going into the field would help her better understand what heroes needed. From there she turned out to just be good at it, so she kept being a hero. She was more active on the investigative side of hero work, and Endeavor did in fact respect her and acknowledged the role of her intellect in taking down the trafficking ring mentioned here. ****Aizawa interned under her to learn more about combat (maybe she's the one who designed his capture weapon?).**

**She won't appear in the story or probably even get mentioned again after this, but just felt worth mentioning a little world-building detail.  
**

**Also: a lot of people have shown up in the Discord, and it's been fun! We're mostly just sharing fic recs and discussing MHA. The link is still the same (I mentioned last chapter), so feel free to join!**

**Question for next time: what would be the most chaotic point in the canon universe and timeline for an AU version of themselves to swap in? (Excluding Shigaraki. Literally swapping him at any point would cause chaos.)  
**


	38. Chapter 38: Impulse and Determination

**Trigger warning: vague reference to suicide. Literally seven words, not even an explicit use of the word, but it's still there.**

**Before today's chapter: I got another piece of fan art! Bunny over on AO3 drew Aiko. You can find it on my Tumblr (same name as here, cannibalisticapple). It's so great, I love the detail on her eyes~ On that note, I'm going to push through my procrastination and finally draw her this weekend. If I don't, I encourage you to give me a hard time.**

* * *

Chapter 38

.::Impulse and Determination::.

Over the past two weeks, Eijirou had started to get used to Ashido's sudden _weirdness_. At first it had been jarring to have her shouting for him from across the lunchroom, or even just to see her waiting for him outside the apartment building every morning so they could walk to school together. Her oddly clingy behavior had been a weird and abrupt change, as had the bizarre amnesia, but at some point it had started to become normal, even weirdly... _nice_.

He'd never really interacted with Ashido or Kirameki even at their middle school, and he certainly _never_ spoke to Anjou. But even so, Ashido just had this magnetic charm to her. Being around her made him feel light and comfortable, like his life had gotten just a little bit brighter. After being alone for so long, he figured that her weird behavior was a small price to pay for the friendly company, even if it ended up getting him on house arrest.

Eijirou thought that at this point, even if Ashido continued to surprise him, he would be able to deal with it fine. Nothing could ever be as shocking as when she'd run straight into that villain fight after all.

Clearly, he was wrong.

"You _believe her_?" he blurted, staring at Anjou in shock. Somehow, _this_ was his breaking point. Not Ashido claiming she came from another world—one where they _both_ went to _UA_ and learned from _All Might_—or even her claiming there were other people from another world. At this point he might just be numb to Ashido's weirdness, or maybe he was just so overwhelmed that he hadn't really _processed_ all of it yet. It _was_ a really crazy story after all, and it still didn't feel quite real.

But Anjou always seemed cool and rational. She was easily the voice of reason in their group, the one who'd always rein in the others' more chaotic tendencies. So, yeah, he guessed it made sense that _Anjou_ believing Ashido's insane story would be what shocked him most.

Next to him Ashido let out a delighted squeal loud enough to make him wince, basically bouncing in place as she gave Anjou a face-splitting grin so big it almost looked painful. "You actually _believe_ me!? Thank you so, SO much An-chan! You are officially my best friend here!"

For her part the teal-haired girl held up a hand. "Slow down, I'm not sure I _fully_ believe it yet," she said, and Ashido's bouncing stopped, her smile fading to a look of confusion.

"But, you _just said_—"

"It's more complicated than that," Anjou cut in, and she sounded oddly... tired. "I don't know if you're _actually_ from another world. It _could_ be a bunch of implanted memories like these guys are saying. But at this point, there's too many details that check out to ignore."

"Check out?" Eijirou repeated, and Anjou nodded, still looking frustrated.

"I can't explain everything, but some of the stuff Ashido's saying—she's talking about people and things she shouldn't know."

"And what does _that_ mean?" Kirameki asked, her tone a bit irritated now. Eijirou couldn't blame her, he was confused by this too. Anjou huffed and crossed her arms, eyes closed with a look of concentration as she seemed to consider her response.

"Look, I can't tell you guys everything because there's a lot of complicated stuff involved that I can't just tell anyone, okay?" she finally said. "It's not my place to talk about it, and again, like I said, it's _really_ complicated. But just now, Ashido described a bunch of people I _know_ she shouldn't know."

"Really?" Ashido perked up, eyes shining. "Who? Who?"

"I'm _not_ answering that right now," Anjou said flatly, and Ashido deflated in obvious disappointment. "All that matters is that some of those names she listed are _real_ people, and I know she wouldn't have met them or know about their Quirks. Like Todoroki." That got their attention.

"Todoroki?" Eijirou asked, eyebrows furrowing. "What's so special about him? I mean, he's kinda a public figure anyway, right?" Todoroki Shouto had been plastered all over the news a year prior when he disappeared. While the media hadn't given all the details about him—not even showing a picture of his face, so that villains wouldn't be as likely to recognize him—it wouldn't be _that_ hard to find details on him. There were a few photos from before Endeavor started hiding his family from the public.

"Yeah, but the details of his _Quirk_ aren't public," Anjou replied dryly. "And her description of it is accurate." That made Eijirou and Kirameki perk up, because the news _definitely_ hadn't mentioned his Quirk.

"Hold on, how do you know _that_?" Kirameki asked, beating him to the punch. "Do you, like, _know_ him or something?"

"Nope," Anjou said. "Never met him, doubt I'd be able to recognize him on the streets. But I know someone who's friends with his brother, and _his_ description matches up perfectly with Ashido's." She raised a hand to count off points on her fingers. "Super strong dual Quirk, _way_ stronger than Endeavor's, with a preference for the ice side. And also a bunch of daddy issues."

The others were silent as they absorbed this. "...So basically, you never saw it, but got this information from someone who never saw it either, but heard about it from his _brother_," Kirameki summarized, and she nodded.

"Pretty much." Kirameki did not look impressed.

"That's an actual '_friend of a friend_' thing. That's not even, like, second-hand information. It's closer to, like, _third-_hand." She crossed her arms with a huff. "An-chan, I love and respect you, but I seriously question the validity of that. I've heard enough gossip at school to know how much actual details can get lost in those sort of chains."

"My source is known for being fairly accurate," Anjou replied dryly, and sighed as she continued, "But look, that's just _one_ detail. There's other stuff too, like Jirou Kyouka—who _is_ a real person in Hosu."

"And how do you know _that_?" Kirameki challenged, and Anjou looked at her phone.

"Because someone I know asked me to run a background check on her." That made everyone freeze, just staring at her in shock. Anjou tapped at the screen a few times before turning it to them, showing what looked like a blond guy with a guitar in a rocker pose, and a little blond girl next to him. "Her dad's a famous musician, Jirou Kyoutoku. She appeared in a photo shoot for a magazine with him a few years ago."

Eijirou stared at the photo in silence, just taking it in. Aside from the long blond hair, the father-daughter duo barely resembled each other. She looked weirdly out of place next to him in his studio setup, wearing a nice-looking light blue dress and red glasses that made a stark contrast with the father's hole-ridden band shirt and jeans.

Even Ashido was squinting at the picutre. "That... That _looks_ like Jirou, but she has _purple_ hair," she said slowly. "And no glasses. And—I don't think I've ever seen her in a dress like that. You can't even see her earphone jacks!"

"Yeah, it's probably a disguise to protect her from nosy people," Anjou said, turning the phone back to herself. "The article doesn't even mention her name, they just wanted a shot of him and his daughter because he talked about being a single dad. Funny you mention earphone jacks though, because her mom _definitely_ had those," she added lightly. "Same goes with the purple hair. Guess she took after her mom more."

"Uh, can we go back to the part where someone asked you to do a _background check_ on her?" Eijirou piped up meekly. He had so many _questions_ about that, and honestly he was a little afraid of the answers.

"I can't say why, but I promise it's nothing illegal or shady," Anjou said with a shrug, which did the exact _opposite_ of reassure him. Eijirou froze up in silent panic as Anjou continued _way_ too casually after saying something like that, "Anyways, I _did_ find out that a Jirou Kyouka lives in Hosu. There's a fancy school there for kids who might be at higher risk of being targeted, so it checks out.

"And that school is _also_ rumored to be attended by Ingenium's brother and the Yaoyorozu heiress," she added with a pointed look at Ashido. "At the very least, the school got sizable donations from those two families this year, _and_ the frequency of patrols by the Idaten Agency in its area have picked up around there since this spring."

"Is this information usually available to the public?" Eijirou asked, feeling increasingly alarmed because this didn't sound like stuff they'd be telling everyone in press releases.

"Nope," Anjou deadpanned, and either didn't notice or (more likely) _blatantly ignored_ his growing panic as she pocketed her phone. "Either way, it's one _hell_ of a coincidence for Ashido to remember all these names that absolutely _aren't_ public knowledge. I don't even know those two's given names. And that's just the stuff I'm comfortable sharing," she added with a shrug, while Eijirou just _stared_.

_If _that's_ what she's comfortable sharing, then what else is there!?_ He wanted to ask that, but the potential answer scared him too much so he kept his mouth shut. Everything Anjou had mentioned so far sounded potentially highly illegal—_including the assurance that it wasn't_—so he really dreaded what the heck she didn't feel comfortable sharing with them.

Kirameki lacked his reservations though—or rather, she just didn't care about how Anjou got that information. "If you don't know their given names, how do you know _she_ does?" she asked. "You're not doing a very good job of convincing me."

"Like I said, that's just what I'm comfortable sharing," Anjou retorted, unphased by Kirameki's doubt. "There's other stuff she said that I know is accurate, and she definitely should _not_ know it." That had Eijirou calming down again, his unease giving way to curiosity. So then that must mean she recognized some of the other names Ashido mentioned, right? It would explain why she'd asked Ashido to list off her classmates.

"I'm... still kinda confused," the girl in question admitted almost sheepishly, but perked up as she added, "But if it means you might believe me, that's good enough for me!"

"It still sounds too weird to be true," Kirameki said with a frown, and Ashido shot her a sour look. "Even if Mina _does_ know all those names, doesn't it still seem more likely it was all planted in her head than, you know, _coming from another dimension_? Maybe they're using _her_ as bait for all these kids who're way more valuable."

"Yeah, it does," Anjou agreed surprisingly easily, and Ashido made an offended sound at that. "But there's still some stuff that's too specific to really check out with me. Like..." She trailed off, and Eijirou stiffened as her eyes flitted his way, lingering for just a few seconds before returning to Ashido. "Well, let's just say some details are too randomly specific to be logical for implanted memories."

_What the hell?_ Eijirou frowned, because no _way_ did she look at him randomly before saying something like that for no reason. Call him crazy or maybe paranoid, but he felt sure that she was referring to something about _him_ with that vague line. Ashido and Kirameki didn't seem to notice though, and he didn't have time to dwell on it before Anjou shrugged and spoke again. "Look, forget it. I've already said enough. I think there _is_ something going on here though, especially since we _know_ Infinity Girl is an actual, real teenage girl and is missing."

"We do?" Kirameki asked in genuine surprise, and Anjou snorted.

"Yeah, we do," she replied dryly. "Remember how Ashido mentioned a surprise visit from the hero Midnight on Sunday? You know, right before you two started yelling at each other?" Kirameki winced at the reminder but her eyes were no less wide with shock, Eijirou similarly stunned. With the quick flow of the conversation and fight he'd forgotten that part completely, but Ashido _had_ mentioned a detective came to ask her about Infinity Girl.

"Oh," Kirameki said lamely, and turned to Ashido with a grimace. "Sorry, Mina."

"I'll _think_ about accepting your apology," Ashido said with a haughty sniff, crossing her arms and turning her head away.

"So yeah, we know that Infinity Girl is an actual, missing teenage girl," Anjou repeated. "And Ashido was right with all that stuff about her profile name. The timing of Infinity Girl making her profile and then finding and friending Ashido is way too close to just be a coincidence. I'm willing to bet she has all those memories too, and something happened that made her run away."

"Or maybe she just got tired of sitting around and doing nothing," Ashido muttered under her breath, scowling at her feet. Eijirou frowned as he looked at her, his mind still whirring from just—well, _everything_. This was a lot to take in, and while he still had a lot of doubts, Anjou made some pretty convincing arguments.

"Okay, so if this is true, then shouldn't we go to Oracle or some other Pro Hero?" he asked, and Kirameki perked up.

"Yeah!" she agreed with a vigorous nod. "I mean, if this is fake then there's obviously, like, some giant trap! And if all this multi-dimension stuff actually _is_ real, then this is _way_ over our heads! We should absolutely go to a hero, like, _now_!"

"We can't because reasons," Anjou replied testily, and that was probably the least satisfactory answer ever but her obvious irritation made Eijirou wary of asking again. She gave an aggravated sigh and crossed her arms with a frown. "Look, under pretty much any other circumstances, I'd be all for going to the Pros. But right now, there's a lot of stuff going on that I can't mention, and if the Pros get involved it'll make things messy for a _lot_ of people.

"Take it from a foster kid," she added. "Good intentions do jackshit when the legal system and bureaucracy gets involved. If we go to them now, Ashido will probably be whisked away and it'll be weeks before they actually _do_ anything productive. With something this big, they'll want to verify as much as possible before making any moves, and that'll take _ages_."

"I think it's too risky, too," Ashido piped up sheepishly, and both Eijirou and Kirameki spun to face her in shock. She had an awkward grimace on her face, scratching the back of her neck as she avoided looking at them. "I mean, obviously I thought about it, and if I'd been able to find a Pro on like, week one, I _totally_ would have told them everything. But this world's just—it's _sooo_ different from mine! It feels like there's villains _everywhere_, and I don't even know like half the heroes here!"

She shook her head, tugging at her hair around her horns again with a pinched-looking frown. "I just don't _know_! It's all so different and _scary_! What if I tell someone but they're actually secretly a bad guy? Or, or what if _they're_ the ones who did this to me somehow and I didn't know!? Like, maybe they didn't realize it happened to _me_, so they need to silence me!"

As she began rambling and growing increasingly panicked Eijirou just stared. He kind of wanted to say she was overthinking it, but given the multiverse bombshell, she might not be. Once again, Kirameki had no such reservations though. "...Mina, you've been spending this whole weekend thinking about this, haven't you?" she asked flatly, and Ashido flailed her arms with a distressed whine.

"_Yes!_ There's just nothing to do but _think_! And I know it's stupid and I'm totally overthinking a ton of it, but I just keep running out of other stuff to do so I keep going over all the worst case scenarios because I feel like I can't do _anything_!"

"That's because you can't right now," Anjou said bluntly, making Ashido whine in dismay. "At least, not here."

_That_ caught their attention. "Hold on," Kirameki said, whirling to face her. "Are you saying—?"

"Yeah." Anjou nodded. "Ashido needs to leave Kamino. I already explained why going to the Pros would take too long, it'd be easier to handle it more directly."

"But _we_ don't know what to do either!" Eijirou blurted, unable to help himself. "I mean, I kinda get what you're saying about the Pros, but if even _they_ don't know where to start, then what could _we_ do?"

Anjou didn't respond right away, her mouth thinning and eyebrows furrowing as she looked away. "I... have some leads," she admitted reluctantly, and all three of them went frozen and slack-jawed with shock. The look on her face made it clear she didn't want to admit it, and it seemed like she had to force herself to speak as she continued, "I can't... explain _what_ they are right now, but... there's a _reason_ I'm willing to believe Ashido.

"And that's _also_ why I'm so reluctant to get to the Pros," she added more seriously, turning her gaze back to them with an odd fire in her eyes. "I _need_ to find out what's going on with Ashido's memories. This is bigger than either of you can imagine—bigger than _any_ of us can, probably. If she goes to the Pros, chances are we'll _never_ find out the full story, and I can't do that. So if we handle it ourselves, we can find out the truth sooner. And that means Ashido needs to leave."

Eijirou just stared in silent shock. _What?_ This was just... insane, his brain felt like it could barely handle this. "Anjou, this—this is still insane!" Kirameki sputtered. "I don't get what's going on, but this sounds _really_ dangerous. Mina's _already_ probably a target, and you're saying she should _run away_? That's just—"

"I'll do it." The words made Kirameki falter, whirling to stare at Ashido in shock. The pink-skinned girl stared at Anjou with a serious expression, her eyes full of a fiery resolve that took Eijirou by surprise. "What do I have to do?"

"Mina?" Kirameki whispered, eyes wide.

"First we need to get rid of your phone," Anjou said, holding out her palm. "Even if the history's clean, people can get all sorts of information out of it with the right Quirks."

"_What!?"_ Kirameki yelped. "That's just—"

"Fine." Ashido didn't hesitate, grabbing her phone from the table and holding it to Anjou with a stony expression. "Destroy it or whatever you have to do, I don't care." The lack of hesitation in her voice silenced Kirameki, and Eijirou felt his stomach flip. That look on her face reminded him of the way she'd looked when they heard that explosion on Friday, before she took off running to dive into a fight.

She was serious. She was absolutely serious. Maybe he should have realized that from the start, but seeing her hand over her phone and even give permission to just _destroy_ it with zero hesitation finally cemented it.

"Hold on, seriously?" he whispered, feeling his mouth twitch into a nervous, borderline hysteric smile. "Ashido, this is kind of a huge decision! Shouldn't you think this through, like, a little more?"

His words seemed to make something snap, because Ashido whirled to face him with a ferocious snarl. "_That's all I've been doing for the past two weeks!_" she practically _roared_, her voice heated enough to make him cringe and recoil. "I've been sitting around doing _nothing_, waiting for this to wear off on its own! But it's not _going_ to, and I have no idea where to even begin with finding out how the hell I got here, let alone how to _get back_, and now I'm stuck on house arrest because this world's just _so screwed up_!"

She stamped her foot harshly, lips curling back in displeasure. "I'm sick and tired of it all! I finally have a lead on a _bunch_ of different people, so _hell yes,_ I'm going to do whatever it takes to follow it! I'm a Hero, and it's time I acted like it and take charge instead of just waiting around for _whatever_!" She turned back to Anjou, hands clenched at her sides as fire burned in her eyes. "So whatever I need to do, _tell me_. I'll do it."

Anjou met her determined glower with a cool gaze of her own, nodding as she slipped Ashido's phone into her pocket. Next to them Kirameki bit her lip, looking uncomfortable and uncertain, but finally she seemed to settle on something and sighed.

"Fine, what can I do to help?" she asked, and Eijirou whirled to face her with his eyes bulging while Ashido squealed in delight.

"Wait, you're going along with this!?" he blurted, and Kirameki shot him a sour look.

"There's no point in fighting it," she grumbled. "When Mina sets her mind to something, there's no changing it, even if she's being absolutely _stupid_." She scowled and shook her head. "If she's going to do it anyway, I might as well try to make sure she doesn't get herself even more hurt, y'know?" She glanced at Anjou with a frown as she added, "And besides, if Anjou's treating this so seriously, it's got to be _serious_."

"It is," Anjou said with a nod. "Believe me, I wouldn't be suggesting this if I thought there was another way." She glanced at Eijirou now, making him stiffen. "That's three people involved. Kirishima, it's your call now. What're you going to do?"

Eijirou just stood in silence for a second, mind momentarily blank. "I... I..." He trailed off, mind still reeling, and looked down with a heavy frown. "I don't know," he whispered weakly. "This is just—it's crazy, you know?" This was all happening so fast, he could barely keep up with it. Today had started so normally, and now they were talking about Ashido just—_running away_?

"Kiri, you don't have to help us." Ashido's voice snapped him out of his stupor, and he looked over to find her giving him a small, reassuring smile. "I know that this is all crazy, and I get that you're not as tough as my Kiri. I already screwed up your life enough on Friday," she added with a small laugh, the sound oddly bitter. "So I won't get mad if you don't want to get involved."

Ashido looked so sad even as she smiled, and he found himself unable to look at her as his gaze quickly lowered to his feet. "I'm sorry," he said, bowing his head. "This is just—it's too much. I'm really sorry, Ashido."

Kirameki shot him a sympathetic look while Anjou hummed, nodding at his answer. "Alright then," she said. "Kirishima, if you're not going to help, you should go now." He startled at that and looked at her wide-eyed.

"What—"

"From here on out, this has nothing to do with you," Anjou cut in bluntly. She turned to face Eijirou fully now, those turquoise pupils almost unsettling in their intensity. In all the time he'd known her, she rarely looked up from her phone so to be the subject of her focus left him wanting to squirm. "You've already heard too much. After Ashido goes missing, we'll be the first people the police will question. So the less you know, the safer it'll be for everyone."

"I..." Eijirou trailed off, floundering for a response, but then he realized he didn't _have_ one. Anjou was right. He'd made his decision and didn't want to get involved any further than he was. Sticking around to listen to them plan would just go against that.

His hands clenched at his sides and his teeth dug into his lip for a second, before he took a deep, shuddery breath. "Okay," he said quietly, and turned to Ashido with a frown. "I'm really sorry, Ashido. I still think is crazy, but I... I won't tell anyone about this. Just... be safe, okay?"

"I will, Kiri, I promise," she replied with a solemn nod, and then grinned reassuringly as she pumped a fist into the air. "Plus Ultra!"

The enthusiasm startled him, and he blinked in surprise before nodding. "R-right... Plus Ultra, I guess. Well, uh... bye." He gave a small bow before hurrying out, and when he closed the door he just stood in the hall for a moment as he tried to just... _process it_.

Ashido was leaving now. There really was no doubt left. This was _actually happening_, and it was all so fast. For the second time in five days, his world had been thrown on its axis.

He gnawed on his lip as he began the walk to his own apartment, mind still racing with everything he'd just heard. Did he believe everything Ashido said? Honestly, he wasn't sure. It _would_ explain a lot of her behavior, and Anjou had made some good points too, but... it was just so _crazy_. That another world might exist, one where All Might never died, UA still existed, and Ashido had gone there to be a hero—no, not just Ashido, but him too.

It was a world where _Eijirou_ was a student at UA, and that was probably the craziest claim of all.

Eijirou couldn't imagine himself as a hero. Years ago he'd dreamed of it of course—most kids did—but he never thought he really had what it took to, you know, _be_ one. He was shy and nervous all the time, his Quirk didn't do much but harden his skin—hell, the first time he ever used it he cut himself enough to leave a scar. He'd been scared of his own Quirk for years, what kind of hero was _that_?

No, Ashido was much more easy to imagine in the halls of UA. Her energetic personality and bright smile were just what people would need, and beyond that she had a great Quirk and—and so much more _courage_ than Eijirou ever had. She hadn't hesitated to rush to that villain fight and do everything she could to save that man. He still couldn't say why he'd followed her back then, but he'd only been able to do what she said. She was the type to dive into danger headfirst to save others, just like everyone at UA—

And then suddenly it hit him and he froze midway to his apartment, the breath rushing out of his lungs as his mind came to a stop.

_Plus Ultra._

Eijirou didn't realize he'd turned around until he was outside Ashido's door again. He practically pounded on it before turning the doorknob, all but shoving it open and stumbling inside. Ashido, Kirameki and Anjou had apparently started to head to her bedroom after he left, the trio twisting to look at him a few feet from the door.

"Kiri?" Ashido asked with a frown, immediately darting over to his side. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

Eijirou couldn't respond right away, leaning forward with his hands on his knees and panting from the exertion of running all the way back to her apartment. Her eyes were filled with unmasked concern as she looked at his exhausted state. Something about that look made his stomach twist uncomfortably, and he swallowed thickly as he tried to ignore the feeling.

"Kirishima, you should really go back to your own apartment," Anjou drawled. "We need to start planning."

He took a final gulp of air, hands clenching atop his knees as he straightened up. "You said Plus Ultra to me," he said, looking Ashido right in the eye, and she paused.

"Uh, yeah?" she said, sounding confused, and he couldn't blame her.

"That's—that's UA's motto, isn't it?"

"Of course it is!" She bobbed her head more vigorously now. "Why else would I say it to you? It's part of my promise to be safe and come back in one piece!"

Eijirou's heart felt like it skipped a beat. "I—I'm really a student there too?" he asked breathlessly, and she paused, her confusion quickly fading and replaced by a bright, beaming smile.

"Of course you are!" she cheered, throwing up her arms with a bright grin. "You're Red Riot, the manliest hero ever!"

_Red Riot._

The name echoed in Eijirou's brain as the world seemed to freeze one last time. Suddenly he was a kid again, gazing with awe at a video of Crimson Riot whose Quirk had been so similar to his own, even if it only affected his hair. That same day he'd run downstairs to where his mom had been cooking lunch, a beaming smile on his face as he waved around a drawing of himself as a hero.

Hearing that name from Ashido's lips made something click and Eijirou found himself swallowing, his back straighter than before.

"Ashido, I want to come too," he declared, and her face went slack with shock.

"Woah, _what_?" Kirameki yelped, eyes practically bulging. "You mean, like—"

"I want to run away with you too," he said, surprising even himself as he said it.

"Really?" Ashido asked, and her face started to light up before abruptly freezing and shifting to a frown. "But, wait—Kiri, this is _really_ dangerous. If you come too, you'll be putting yourself in mega-danger, big time."

"She's right," Anjou interjected, her tone lazy but her gaze critical and harsh as she gazed at Eijirou. "You said it yourself, running away is a big decision. This doesn't even concern you."

"Yeah!" Ashido bobbed her head. "I already screwed up your life enough by getting you caught up in that villain fight. There's no reason for you to get involved in this any more when you have nothing to do with it—"

"When I was in elementary school, I found out about a Pro Hero named Crimson Riot." The words tumbled out of his mouth almost thoughtlessly, and Ashido clamped her mouth shut with a surprised look as he continued. "Up until then I kinda hated my Quirk. It hurt me the first time I used it so it scared me, but he had a similar one and that made it better. That's when I first really started wanting to be a hero, and when I first thought of the name Red Riot."

His fists clenched at his side, gazing directly into Ashido's eyes as he continued, "But then the UA Massacre happened."

He could see the look of shock on Ashido's face and how Kirameki winced behind her, the brief flicker of _horror_ at the reminder that the event happened. "You don't remember it, but a bunch of kids from our town were there and—and _died_." He had to force the word out, feeling a bitter taste on his tongue as he did, and saw Ashido wince and her eyes widen. "The days after that were just—_awful_. I'll never forget it, seeing all those families just crying and torn apart."

Even now he vividly remembered the victims' families being interviewed on the news. People he _knew_, like Old Mrs. Tomono who lived on their street and always gave him cookies. Or the Masuda family, who owned the small corner shop where he would always get ice cream in the summer. He remembered watching Mrs. Tomono turn into a shell of her former self after losing her grandson, never baking again. The Masuda family had been even worse after the loss of their only child—Eijirou would never forget the double funeral.

Just thinking about it made him want to tear up, his lips pulling back in something close to a grimace as he tried to control his emotions. "When I saw how they reacted, I knew I couldn't let my parents _ever_ go through that," he said. "So I gave up on ever becoming a hero, and never talked about being Red Riot again."

"Kiri..." The name was barely a whisper, Ashido's eyes wide as she stared at him. He could see horror there, concern and sadness and—_pity_. The last one made Eijirou gulp, the unpleasant feeling in his chest almost unbearable. He'd seen that look all too often over the years, and he hated it.

"But before that," he continued, voice rough, "back when we were still kids. All the other kids at school started making fun of kids who came up with names that were too close to actual Pro Heroes. They'd call those kids fanboys and fangirls, and it was just so—so mean." It felt almost ridiculous saying it now, but he'd been a shy and timid boy, and to be mocked for any reason at all... "So I kept the name Red Riot to myself." He took a deep breath, meeting her surprised gaze squarely. "Not even my parents know about that name."

He could _see_ the understanding register in her eyes, her jaw dropping as she processed just what that meant. For the moment Eijirou turned away, focusing instead on Anjou who looked at him with an almost critical look. "You said I'm not involved, but this other world has me using a name I never told _anyone_," he declared. "I don't know if Ashido's actually from another world or what, but I want to know why she knows that name."

His voice was steadier than he expected, full of more resolve than he actually felt. He couldn't believe he was actually _saying_ this, but more than that—he couldn't believe he actually _meant_ it. He wanted to know how Ashido got _that_ name, he wanted to find out what was going on with her. Find out if she really _was_ from another world, or if some villain somehow got his secret childhood hero name and inserted it into her memories. More importantly—

He wanted to learn more about the Kirishima Eijirou that Ashido so clearly remembered and admired—and maybe learn how to be that guy.

"I'm going too," he announced, his voice more solid than before, and Anjou cocked her head, considering him for a moment before nodding.

"Fine, if you're sure. There's no going back though."

"I know," he said, and he meant it. He was tired of being a wimp and scared all the time, it was time for him to do something.

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**Surprise! We get two chapters this week! ****I don't have any particular reason for the extra update. But I do know that right now, there's a lot of really scary stuff going on in the world, especially here in the US. So I figured maybe some of you might need an extra bit of escapism right now.**

**Today's chapter has undergone a few rewrites because it is so tricky to figure out how to keep Anjou from revealing _too much_. Not just from a reader's standpoint, but because she KNOWS that they'll all be questioned by the police after Ashido leaves and she doesn't want Kirishima or Kumiko to have potentially sensitive information. ****But the end goal's always been the same: Kirishima is leaving with Ashido. I'm excited to finally reach this point, and give a glimpse on just WHY he's so different from canon Kirishima. This is probably the first time I've really touched on the UA Massacre and its aftermath.  
**

**Question for next time: none this time. Today's chapter has given you guys plenty of new material for speculation.  
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	39. Chapter 39: A Busy Morning

**Before today's chapter, two things: First, as promised on Friday, I finally drew Aiko! You can find it on my tumblr, cannibalisticapple. Just add "/tagged/my-art" or "tagged/aiko" to the end of the url to find it super-fast.**

**Second: I got two pieces of fan art! The first is by snowyh2o, who drew the picture of Izuku, Inko and Hisashi from his 8th birthday. I honestly could not have come up with a better design for Hisashi myself. THEN, ariapmdeol doodled Aiko based on the reference I did of her! The colors are so amazing, and she looks so beautiful in it! ****You can find all the fan art on my Tumblr, I added a link just for the fan art tag.**

**Thank you all so much for your continued support! Today's chapter is a little longer than usual, so enjoy~**

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Chapter 39

.::A Busy Morning::.

"_All clear over here._"

"Nothing here either. Guess everyone's inside." Denki murmured under his breath as he peered out of the alleyway at the empty street, his heart pounding. As he surveyed it Jirou's voice crackled quietly over his earpiece, static tinging her words.

"_Let's group up then,_" she muttered.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed with no small amount of relief, and pulled back into the alleyway to head to the meeting spot. This marked their first patrol since he'd gotten hurt on Sunday, and somehow Jirou had convinced him to split up to check out some of the streets. She had spent a good chunk of yesterday researching areas with high crime rates and a low amount of patrols so they could make a big splash.

Denki got the logic of it, and they weren't too far away from each other—only a couple blocks—but it was still nerve-wracking to be alone. He already felt anxious walking around in his vigilante costume in broad daylight, but he knew it had to be done. They had decided to focus all their efforts on spreading the 1-A Vigilantes' name, and that meant they'd have to take some more risks.

They had already taken another major step. Last night Denki had emailed the school to ask about switching to online classes, claiming he'd gotten spooked after having to be saved by the 1-A Vigilantes. Using their vigilante counterparts as part of their excuse had to be one of the _craziest_ ideas ever, and he still couldn't believe they'd actually gone through with it. Having him connected to his vigilante identity in _any_ way filled him with a rush of adrenaline and dread.

To be fair, they'd taken steps to create evidence for this story, by staging an _actual_ rescue. It had been a surprisingly elaborate ruse: Denki went to the corner store to grab dinner, where a thug tried to mug him after leaving. Before the man could do anything, the 1-A Vigilantes showed up to save the day and spook him enough to run off without a fight—all conveniently in the view of a security camera and the store's cashier.

What no one viewing the footage would know was that Hatsume had donned one of the costumes, and that the "thug" had been a man she somehow recruited to _pretend_ to mug him. Thanks to that, there was now footage and at least one witness identifying Denki as separate from the 1-A Vigilantes—and this alibi was now on record with the police, who the cashier had immediately called. That interview was the most nerve-wracking hour of Denki's life. Good thing the "mugging" gave him an excuse to be nervous.

All in all, the whole plan really impressed Denki... except for the part that Hatsume had been wearing _Jirou's_ costume, and Jirou had been wearing _his_. To be fair they'd tried to get Hatsume in his costume, but they just couldn't get her chest flat enough to pass as him. So, yeah, he felt kinda weird dressed in his costume knowing _Jirou_ had been wearing it not even twenty-four hours ago. Granted, he'd also feel weird if Hatsume _had_ managed to wear it too, but...

Know what? It was just _weird_, and he really needed to stop thinking about that.

Fortunately he didn't need to think about it long because he'd reached the meeting spot by this point, a spot where two different alleys intersected. _Un_fortunately, Jirou hadn't arrived yet, meaning he was still alone. He sighed quietly as he leaned against the wall near a dumpster, trying to keep out of sight in case anyone happened to walk through the alley.

While he waited for Jirou he pulled out the home-made camera Hatsume had made, to make sure the photos couldn't be traced through metadata, or... something. A lot of it went over his head, but it sounded like even with FacePage's security people could still find stuff like camera models from photos? Again, there was a lot of technobabble that flew over his head, so he decided to just take her word for it.

They'd used it to do a mini photo shoot yesterday before carrying out the fake mugging plan so they could set up the FacePage profile later. Unfortunately it needed some special cable to upload it to a laptop though, and Hatsume's only one had broken. She'd buy another today after school, but in the meantime she gave him the camera to get some _actual_ action shots.

For now he opened the gallery and scrolled through the photos they'd taken. One had them posing around a giant crate, Jirou sitting on top of it and Denki leaning against it while they flashed victory signs at the camera. Another had them standing in front of a dark gray sheet draped over the crate as a backdrop, holding homemade signs with Jirou's saying "1-A" and Denki's saying "Vigilantes."

However, by far the coolest one was a pseudo-action shot with them standing back to back. Jirou had a slight hunch to her posture as she started to bend down, one foot slid forward and her hands reaching for the ground. Denki stood a bit straighter, and had his hand pointed forward with the index finger like a gun.

His eyes lit up as he looked at it, the coolness hitting him all at once. The shot felt like something from an action movie, they just looked so _awesome_! He'd wanted to use it as their profile pic, but Jirou had vetoed it since it didn't show their masks or the 1-A that well, which was their whole branding. It was a bummer, but he couldn't argue there. At the very least, he resolved to post this one first.

"Still thinking about the profile pic?" He jumped when Jirou spoke up, and turned to find she'd arrived while he'd been admiring the picture. "Did I _seriously_ surprise you just now? You can't be distracted that easily while we're separated."

"I know," he groaned, shoulders slumping as he exited out of the gallery and pocketed the camera. "Sorry, Stereo Foot."

"Don't _ever_ call me that ever again," Jirou deadpanned, thoroughly unimpressed by the nickname, and he just nodded as they began walking out of the alley. "It's still pretty early so I don't expect many muggers and petty crooks to be running around yet. There's a couple stores near here that got a lot of hits the past few months though, so we should scope those out."

"How do you even _know_ that?" he asked in awe.

"There's a phone app for crime patterns," she replied with a shrug. "People post there if there's been an attack on a location or area, and it tracks how many reports are made and if the police did anything."

"Kinda sad people have to use those," Denki muttered glumly. He already knew this world really sucked, but for there to even be an _app_ for it?

"Actually, we have it back home, too," Jirou commented, startling him. "The class rep showed me after the internships, it actually started as a local thing in Tokyo years ago and started spreading more to other areas. After everything that happened in Hosu this year though, it blew up big time. I figured with everything wrong here it probably blew up _way_ before that, and I was right. The app's way more detailed here."

"Huh," Denki said. "Okay, now it's less depressing and kinda neat instead. You know, maybe I should look up some of the apps I like and see if they're different."

"You can think about that later _after_ patrol ends," Jirou replied, holding up a hand to signal for silence as they neared the mouth of a different alley. She bent down and pressed a hand to the floor to plug in an earphone jack, and soon withdrew it and stood up. "Street up ahead is mostly clear, just a couple pedestrians. Nothing shady as far as I can tell. Want to go out, or stick to alleys?"

Denki hesitated. He still didn't like the thought of going around in costume in broad daylight—that was just _asking_ for Pro Heroes to look for them—but he had to admit it would get them attention faster. "Let's go," he said, and Jirou nodded before taking the lead.

Like she'd said, the street wasn't that busy, just a couple random people walking around. Once someone noticed them though they made a sound of surprise, more people quickly looking their way. Denki's nerves stood on edge from all the staring, and he felt so relieved the mask and visor hid his expression. It took a lot of self control to not walk closer to Jirou.

One woman in an apron paused sweeping the entrance of a small store and leaned against her broom as she looked at them. "Hey, aren't you those vigilantes?" she asked.

"Yeah, we are," Jirou replied with a nod. Her voice sounded a bit different now, using the modifier Hatsume had just completed on Monday. It didn't _completely_ disguise their voices, just lowered the pitch a bit and still had some minor static, but they'd agreed it worked well enough to hide their identities if they met anyone who _did_ know them. Denki quickly tapped his earpiece to activate his own while the people around them started murmuring.

"So what, are you guys going to be patrolling around here then?" the woman asked. "Maybe that'll actually help out."

"Did something happen?" Denki asked, and she shrugged.

"Just the usual muggings and purse snatchers, but there's been a couple more than usual lately. People are getting bolder, probably want to get money before it gets too cold. Maybe seeing someone patrolling around here will make them think twice, even if you guys are just vigilantes."

The way she added the last bit felt a bit grating to Denki for some reason, like she didn't actually think they were, you know, _competent_. Given their track record so far, he felt like they'd proven themselves to be pretty good. "We'll definitely check out this area more then," Jirou promised, and he got the sense from how she spoke that she'd picked up on it too.

"Don't worry, we'll be right on top of it!" he agreed, flashing a thumbs up. "If any bad guys try to attack us, we'll take them down, no sweat!"

"...Sure," she said flatly. Yeah, she _definitely_ didn't believe in them. He scowled at her but didn't bother responding, instead following Jirou as they continued down the street. From the corner of his eye he saw someone use their phone to snap a photo, but his nerves at being in such a public place had vanished, replaced by annoyance at that woman's dismissive attitude.

Hopefully they'd get some good action today and prove that lady wrong.

* * *

Ochako felt just a _little_ frustrated. Twenty-four hours later Ashido had yet to respond to her friend request, or maybe even see it. Her online status was hidden so Ochako had no way of knowing if she'd even logged on since sending it. It frustrated her because they couldn't make any more moves until Ashido did _something_.

Their plan was that after Ashido accepted the friend request, Ochako would send a very cryptic question only people from Class 1-A would be able to answer. Once they got confirmation that she WAS from their world, they'd tell her to make another account to continue all contact. They had no idea if Ashido's account might be compromised in any way like Ochako's had been, so it would be the safest way to guarantee no one else saw them.

Except they couldn't do that, because Ashido _was not checking her messages_!

She let out a strangled sound of frustration as she glared at Deku's laptop, sprawled atop his bed with the device open in front of her. Aiko had gotten her a burner phone with internet access, but she wanted to be able to have a laptop to initiate the conversation as fast as possible once Ashido finally responded. They had a _lot_ to go over, and it'd be easier with a full laptop keyboard than the tiny touch screen on the phone.

Obviously that wasn't going to happen right this second though. A chime sounded indicating a new message, and Ochako quickly switched to the tab with the open conversation with Deku. Last night he'd updated her on the Aizawa situation, and she'd helped him hash out a rough plan to convince Shigaraki to redo Aizawa's restraints. They didn't expect to _free_ him, but they both agreed it'd be easier on everyone if Aizawa-sensei had his hands bound in front of himself instead of behind his back, if only so he could actually feed himself.

Deku's newest message was to let her know that Shigaraki had told him over breakfast he'd complied to the request... though not without some consequences. '_He said Eraserhead struggled so he might have some bruises,_' Deku wrote. '_I'm kinda scared to visit him and see what happened._'

Ochako grimaced sympathetically. Based on how harsh Shigaraki had already been with Aizawa, she doubted it would look pretty if he felt a need to actually _warn_ Deku. She bit her lip as she typed her response. '_Well at least he probably didn't break any more bones?_' The second she pressed send she regretted it, cringing and ducking her head shamefully. '_Sorry, not helpful._'

It took several seconds for Deku to reply. '_I guess you're right about that at least. He only mentioned bruises, so he probably didn't break anything else._' Even over text the response felt dismal, making Ochako sag in her seat miserably. The fact Aizawa's leg had been broken still made her stomach churn with horror and anxiety. Rescuing him would be much harder if he couldn't walk on his own, and they couldn't exactly wait for it to start healing naturally.

She frowned and lightly slapped her cheeks, nodding to herself as she began typing again. '_Anyways no reply from Ashido, dunno what's up with that. But I got the new burner phone all set up so that's good!_' A few dots appeared to signal Deku was typing something for a few seconds, but then it vanished as he seemed to think before appearing again.

'_It is. Text me so I can get the number!_'

'_On it!_' Ochako pulled out the phone to quickly shoot a text to his number, which Aiko had registered before giving it to her. That left her with a total of two contacts: Deku, and Aiko herself. Ochako still felt oddly warm that Aiko had gone out of her way to get her a phone beyond her spare. For a burner phone, it was surprisingly nice. It wasn't _quite_ a smart phone, even if it had internet, but it was still fancier than anything she would have bought for herself.

After sending the quick '_hi_' she returned her attention to the laptop where Deku was typing. '_Okay, I got it. We probably shouldn't text or call too much though and stick to FacePage. I don't really seem to have any contacts outside the Alliance or Aiko, so they'd probably want to know who I'm talking to._'

'_I'll only use the phone if it's an absolute emergency!_' Ochako promised, nodding to herself as she sent it. The only reason she hadn't texted him right after getting it was because she didn't want to accidentally text him while he was alone with Shigaraki or something. While originally she'd been fully willing to join the Alliance if necessary, Deku had made it perfectly clear how problematic that could be. She _really_ didn't want a bomb around her ankle.

The thought made her frown. '_Any new ideas on the anklets?_'

A full ten seconds passed before he responded. '_No. Shinsou's had it the longest so he's spent a lot of time studying it, but he says he can't even find a key hole. Kacchan said they just snapped it around his ankle when they put it on, so we're not sure how to unlock it._'

'_Maybe it has some kind of electronic key thing? Like, you have to hold a key fob next to it, or press a button on a remote? They have little lights, don't they?_'

'_Yeah, they do. You might be right. I hope so at least, because the only other idea I have is that they're not SUPPOSED to be unlocked and need a Quirk to remove it._'

She frowned. '_That sounds like a really specific Quirk. I guess maybe someone might have something for general lock-picking?_'

There was a pause before Deku typed his response. '_...Actually, I was thinking more Tomura would just disintegrate it._' She winced and sucked in a breath. Yeah, that sounded pretty plausible.

'_Yikes. I wish I could help more. Maybe you could ask Seiko? She was the one who told you about it, right?_'

'_Nope. I am NOT asking Seiko._' There wasn't even a pause before the response, and she had to snort as she imagined him shaking his head.

'_Is she really that bad?_'

'_WORSE. I'm kinda surprised I haven't had any nightmares about her. She hasn't done anything specific, but there's just something... OFF about her. I don't know how to describe it, but even touching her feels weird._' Ochako hummed thoughtfully as she considered the message. She hadn't met Seiko yet, but Deku had told her a bit about her. Seiko sounded creepy and kinda off-putting with how she'd randomly appear, but she wasn't sure it was as bad as Deku made it sound. She was still a kid, right? How bad could she be?

Well, it didn't matter right now. '_Okay I guess, I'll take your word for it. But you don't think she would be willing to help?_'

'_I honestly have no idea, I think maybe she'd tell me if I asked? But I don't want to tell her too much. I don't know how much she knows about the escape plan already, and I don't know how much she'd tell the others once she figures it out._' Ah, that was a good point, and Ochako felt sheepish for not figuring that out herself.

'_Okay, fair. Well either way, don't give up hope and just keeping looking! We can figure this out Deku! Plus Ultra!_' She sent it with a couple fist-pump emojis at the end, hoping to get across her encouraging tone.

Thankfully it worked, because after a few seconds he responded, '_Yeah,_ _Plus Ultra!_' She grinned as he sent a single fist-pump emoji after it, and silently pumped her own fist into the air while he resumed typing. '_I should go fill in Shinsou and Kacchan on this before I visit Eraserhead, see if they have any ideas. I'll talk to you later._'

'_Bye Deku! Text or message me anytime!_' His profile went offline, and she closed the laptop with a quiet sigh. After a few seconds' thought she decided to get up and go over to the neighboring apartment where Aiko stayed. She'd slept on the couch there, feeling too weird to sleep in Deku's room or even in the same apartment as him, so all her stuff was in there. Her phone would chime whenever Ashido finally did _something_ about her friend request, so she figured she should try to do something productive while waiting.

She knocked on the door before entering, but when she didn't get a response she frowned and tried the handle. It was unlocked, so she hesitantly pushed it open to peek inside. "Aiko-san?" she called tentatively.

"In the bedroom!" the woman called, voice muffled by the walls. "Come on in!" Ochako scurried inside at the invitation, heading to the open bedroom door to look inside curiously. Aiko was standing in front of the bed in a pajama tank and boxer shorts, several outfits laid across the mattress and hands on her hips as she stared at them.

"What are you doing?" Ochako asked curiously.

"Trying to pick an outfit. A friend called me in for a favor and I can't look like me."

"A favor?" She felt a small prickle of dread. They still didn't know exactly what kind of work Aiko did, and the fact that this favor needed a disguise made her mind instantly go to the worst-case scenarios.

Maybe Aiko picked up on her apprehension, because she turned to Ochako with a reassuring smile. "Oh, it's nothing bad. He just needs me to play a little distraction. Honestly, I don't even know _what_ they're planning," she added as she turned back to the clothes. "I know it's nothing illegal at least, they're not really that kind of people, but it's not really my business I guess."

After hearing that, Ochako couldn't resist asking. "Would you refuse if it was illegal?"

"Maybe? Sometimes the law is stupid." Aiko shrugged, and then clapped her hands. "Okay, screw it. _Uraraka!_" Ochako startled as Aiko addressed her, whirling to face her with a sharp grin. "Boy or girl?"

"Uh—boy?" She blinked, surprised and confused by the question.

"Name a color!"

"Green."

"Light or dark?"

"Light?"

"Name another color!"

"Purple?" Aiko nodded, an almost wolfish grin on her face as she turned back to the clothes.

"Great, thanks Uraraka." Ochako frowned, still puzzled by the random string of questions until she saw the woman lift up a faded purple sweater and dark slacks. She nodded to herself as she went to her drawers to rifle through them, pulling out a white tank top. "I'm going to get changed and head out. I'll be back in a few hours. Will you be okay here by yourself?"

"Oh, yeah, of course!" Ochako quickly nodded, and then a thought occurred to her. "Oh, would it be okay if I left for a while though?"

Aiko hummed, glancing at her over her shoulder. "Got somewhere in mind?" she asked, and Ochako shrugged.

"Not really, I just kinda want to check out the area around here." More specifically, she wanted to look for potential hiding places to use after Deku and the others escaped. They'd done some light research on the area where Aiko lived, finding it to be surprisingly close to the warehouse where he'd been training. They figured Kurogiri sent him to this area so that he could go to Aiko's apartment if he felt like it.

"Fine by me. Just remember to use that exit I showed you and try not to be seen coming and going. Not many people come around here, but better safe than sorry."

"Will do!" Ochako promised, and left to give Aiko privacy to change. Once in the living room her eyes settled on her backpack, and she nodded to herself in determination as she strolled over to unzip it. She rifled through it before retrieving a folded piece of paper, unfolding it to reveal Dabi's number.

Pulling out the phone, she plugged the number in and hesitated before sending a text. '_Hi Dabi, it's Floaty. Just wanted you to know I'm safe & I found my friend. Thanks for your help!_'

She was surprised when less than a minute later he responded. '_Did you get roped into any trouble?_' Her mouth quirked into a small smile, recognizing the underlying question about whether she'd joined up with the Alliance.

'_Almost, but I'm good. Staying with his sister now!_'

There was a longer pause before the next response. '_Listen to her and stay away from the Alliance. Also stay away from anything chemistry related. You're still playing a dangerous game kid._'

'_I'll be careful, don't worry! Anyways gotta go, just wanted to let you know I'm okay!_' Ochako grinned as she added a thumbs-up emoji before hitting send, and then pocketed her phone as she headed to the stairs. She briefly pondered the part about chemistry, but she didn't dwell on it long. _Time to start scoping the area!_

* * *

Izuku felt no small amount of dread as he approached Aizawa's cell, arms loaded with books and a simple breakfast. After his conversation with Shigaraki that morning he had no idea what to expect, and he had to brace himself before knocking and pushing it open. Aizawa raised his head with a dark glower when the door opened, his expression only softening minutely when he recognized it was him and not one of the others.

Just as Shigaraki promised, they had indeed changed his bindings and restrained his hands in front of him. Aizawa still didn't have any hope of getting out of them himself, as they'd used thick leather cuffs connected by a single link. They even put on _mittens_ to restrict his fingers. Izuku was still endlessly grateful though, because now the man could at least feed himself more easily, and even use the bathroom without the help of other villains.

From what Shigaraki said Aizawa had put up a fight though, and it definitely showed in the heavy bruising on his neck. Izuku winced upon seeing the dark marks and swallowed harshly, quickly averting his gaze. "Um, I got breakfast," he stammered nervously, carrying the plate over to his not-teacher and setting it on the floor nearby before pushing it closer. It had been one of Shigaraki's conditions for redoing the bindings, that Izuku couldn't go within touching range of the hero.

Aizawa just grunted, reaching to take the plate even if the mittens made him fumble a bit. _At least he looks more comfortable now,_ Izuku thought dismally as he sat against the wall with his latest round of schoolwork. This time his assignments included stuff they'd already covered in his own world, so it was mostly review. Remembering the classes made his chest ache though, his hands clenching around the paper.

Thinking of UA made him feel miserable. He and Uraraka still had no idea where to even _begin_ with trying to get home. If the Quirk that had sent them here had a time limit, it should have ended by now. Quirks with such a drastic effect didn't usually last so long, so to still be here... Most likely, it was a single-use effect that just sent them to another dimension, like Kurogiri's Warp Gate. So even after getting out, he had no idea anymore what they'd do next.

"Kid, are you okay?"

He startled when Aizawa spoke, snapping his head up to see the man watching him closely, eyebrows pinched in contemplation and faint concern. Beneath it Izuku could still see wariness though, a deep-rooted suspicion that kept him from fully emphasizing with Izuku. As far as he knew they were still enemies after all, and the thought just made him feel that much worse.

Izuku took a shuddery breath, reaching up to rub his eyes. They were surprisingly dry, honestly catching him off-guard since even he knew he cried at the drop of a hat, but he ignored that and shook his head. "S-sorry," he said shakily. "Just... thinking, I guess." _Please don't ask anymore,_ he silently pleaded, and hoped his tone conveyed it.

His not-teacher frowned, pressing his lips together as he seemed to consider his response. "What are those papers?" he finally asked.

"Huh?" Izuku blinked, caught off-guard by the question, before his eyes trailed to the papers he still clutched tightly. "Oh, uh, it's homework."

"Homework?" Aizawa echoed curiously. "Do you go to school?"

"Not... technically," Izuku replied hesitantly, and sighed. "Kurogiri says it's important to be educated though, so he gets on everyone's cases to do homework. I think he actually goes out and steals lesson plans from schools." He laughed weakly at that, a little weirded out by the thought of the warp Villain breaking into schools to steal copies of lesson plans.

(Apparently this world's Izuku had decided that to be a _very_ real possibility, and had dedicated a few pages in his journals to joint investigations with _Toga_ of all people. On that note, Toga apparently didn't have to do homework despite being the same age. Neither did Mustard, as far as he could tell. Izuku still did not understand why and really wanted to call discrimination.)

"If that's true, that's definitely one of the weirder thefts I've heard of," Aizawa commented, raising his eyebrows. "Can I see it?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure, I guess." Izuku picked up the papers and slid them over to the man, watching as he briefly struggled to pick them up with the mittens before finally giving up and just turning it to face himself. He skimmed over it closely, a thoughtful hum rumbling deep in his throat.

"This is definitely professionally made, I'll give you that much. Probably pulled from an official exercise book for educators." His comment caught Izuku by surprise, and he glanced up at the teen with a perfectly deadpan expression. "I used to be a teacher."

"R-right." Izuku nodded slowly, his heart pounding. For a second he thought of his own Aizawa-sensei again, and he bit his lip as he tried to quash the growing sense of emptiness in his chest—

He forced his attention back to the worksheets he still had, stubbornly banishing all other thoughts. "Honestly, I kinda already know this stuff," he admitted quietly. "The worksheet doesn't really feel... _Necessary_, you know?"

"Then why not ask for something more challenging?" Aizawa asked, sounding genuinely curious, and Izuku paused.

"Because I like the extra free time more."

Aizawa huffed a small snort, and only because of his experience with the man did Izuku recognize the sound as amused. He let a small, sheepish smile of his own make itself known, feeling a little bit lighter.

He still hated this situation, but it might be bearable.

* * *

Hizashi had to suppress a sigh as he listened to the managers and producers prattle on about numbers and ratings, his boredom reaching peak levels. One of the few downsides to his radio gig was having to sit on all these station-wide meetings, which were usually the most boring thing in the world. Ninety percent of the time he had nothing valuable to contribute since he had little involvement with the administrative side, which was the main purpose of these meetings.

Today was no different. They were talking about the station's budget, which while important had very little to do with him and his show. The station was stable and not at risk of shutting down due to a lack of funding or income, and they didn't need to replace any equipment. The current discussion centered around getting new advertising revenue, maybe restructuring a couple of shows (not his own) to have slightly more ad time.

Seriously, he had no input to offer here. His main contributions to these meetings usually came from planning big events or his own show, which in his opinion didn't come up often enough to justify requiring his presence at _every single meeting_. So when his cell phone rang he was all too eager to pull it out, and actually had to fight off a grin when he saw the caller ID.

"Sorry guys, I gotta go," he said as he got up. "Duty calls and all that." The others nodded and made sounds of understanding as he headed out the door, some of the other hosts shooting him slightly envious looks. Once in the hall he answered the call and raised it to his ear, already heading to his office. "Yo, long time no talk! Rare to see _you_ calling me up."

"_Indeed it is,_" Sir Nighteye agreed. "_I considered asking one of my sidekicks to call, but I thought I should handle this personally._"

"Cool, cool. Gimme a sec to get to my office. I was in the middle of a meeting with the radio staff, and I'm guessing you don't want anyone to overhear us." Hizashi could count the number of times Sir Nighteye had called him on one hand, so it had to be big. He figured it must be about either a development about Uraraka, or maybe the Midoriya kid.

"_No need. This isn't particularly sensitive, and knowing you, you'll likely want to leave immediately anyway._" That made him pause, frowning in confusion.

"Oh, yeah? Then what's up?"

The next words Nighteye said would be forever engraved into Hizashi's memories, his world shattering with hope and despair all at once.

"_We've found evidence that Eraserhead is alive._"

* * *

**Today's chapter trivia: the scene with Izuku and Aizawa originally took place in Chapter 41, but the whole chapter felt clunky and more like filler. I only REALLY needed this one scene from it, so I just edited it down and basically cut the rest. As such, the draft is now at 47 chapters instead of 48! Woo!  
**

**Next chapter is going to be FUN. (Also, current drawing goal: Draw Anjou and Kas/Oracle before the next chapter.)**

**Question for next time: Which kids from 1-B do you want to see more of? (I mean both in-canon or in fan fics. Personally, I'd like to see more of Komori Kinoko (the mushroom girl) and Kuroiro Shihai (the black-skinned kid). I feel like they have really fun personalities and interesting Quirks!)**


	40. Chapter 40: Paths to Hope

Chapter 40

.::Paths to Hope::.

Six months.

It had been _six months_ since Shouta went missing.

That number ran through Hizashi's mind on repeat as he sat in the passenger seat of the police car, heart pounding anxiously as he stared out the window. The ride to Nabu had been long and anxious, leaving him wishing he'd had a speed or teleportation Quirk instead of his Voice. He couldn't trust himself to drive in his current state, couldn't even bring himself to turn on the radio, leaving him with nothing to distract himself from his thoughts.

After six long months they'd finally gotten a lead on Shouta, and he'd never been filled with so much hope and heartbreak all at once.

The car pulled to a stop and Hizashi couldn't get out fast enough, darting past the police tape and into the empty husk of the building. Even before he went inside the smell of iron and rot reached him, his stomach churning at the overwhelming stench of death. His heartbeat picked up its pace as he covered his nose with a grimace, forcing himself to slow down as he made his way inside to avoid messing with the crime scene.

Blood splattered the walls around him, long since dried but still ominously dark, officers busy taking pictures of scattered body parts. Enough time had passed for decomposition to start to set in, and Hizashi almost retched as he saw organs scattered in dried pools of blood. Whatever happened here had been brutal, a one-sided massacre with no mercy. The only saving grace was that the winter chill slowed down the decomposition process so the stench wasn't overwhelming; if it had been the height of summer...

He grimaced and forcefully pushed the thought aside, pausing to talk to a couple of passing officers. They pointed him to the stairs and he thanked them before hurrying off, willing himself to ignore the bloodshed around him. Soon enough he was walking down a cold, dark hall, the broken windows giving the bare walls and tile floor an especially creepy vibe. Sir Nighteye stood near the center of the corridor beside an empty doorway, bright fluorescent lights shining from within.

The green-haired Pro nodded at Hizashi as he approached, face stoic as usual. "Present Mic, you made good time."

"I couldn't exactly sit around after getting that call," Hizashi grumbled as he stopped next to him. He frowned as his eyes flitted to the doorway. "Is that...?"

"That's where he was held," Sir Nighteye confirmed with a nod, and Hizashi's frown deepened. He took a breath and steeled his nerves before taking the final step forward so he could look inside.

The room in the doorway was bare. Concrete floors and walls, only a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and no furniture besides standing lights brought in by police. The lights clearly illuminated metal chains attached to one wall—the length trailing to the ground and broken—and dark brown stains scattered around the floor. The sight made his hands clench at his sides, his breath quietly catching. He had no doubts who that blood belonged to.

Lady of the Night crouched in the center of the room, her eyes closed and her hands pressed against the floor almost delicately, but she still noticed his arrival. "He was in here for a long time," she said in lieu of greeting, not bothering to open her eyes. "I can't give an exact estimate, but Eraserhead's left a heavy emotional imprint on this room."

"That's bad, isn't it," he said, not even bothering to phrase it as a question. He knew a bit about how her psychometry worked, that she could pick up on the emotions left by people. If Shouta had left a _strong_ impression, then he'd probably spent the majority of the past six months in this very room, being tortured and who knows what else.

Lady of the Night hummed softly, opening her eyes. Her pupils had a bright golden glow, indicating her Quirk was active as she stared at the ground. "He wasn't tortured constantly, I can say that much. There's just as much boredom mixed in with the pain. I've been sorting through the impressions for the past hour, and the tedium seems to be more common recently. They likely got bored of torturing him at some point, and decided to just keep him as a trophy."

The nonchalance of the statement made Hizashi's stomach churn, his teeth grinding. Maybe he should be relieved to know that Shouta hadn't been tortured constantly for the past six months, but that didn't remove the horror of the situation. To be completely isolated, kept in an empty room with nothing to occupy himself other than dread for when the torture might resume again—that was just as bad, if not _worse_.

It made his heart _ache_ for his best friend, any relief at the news Shouta had been alive this whole time overshadowed by grief and horror.

When it came to underground heroes, there was a certain unspoken rule:

After an underground hero is missing for three months, they were considered dead—and wanting them to still be alive was selfish and cruel, because they were better off dead.

Outsiders might find that belief cold and callous, but the fact was that sometimes death _was_ the better option. Pro Heroes got captured all the time, it was a normal risk in their profession, _especially_ for underground heroes who tended to mix with the shadier parts of society. However, usually the villains responsible for the disappearances didn't bother keeping a captive hero around for very long. Keeping someone alive took time and resources that could be better spent on other ventures.

If someone decided to keep a Pro Hero prisoner beyond three months, then that meant they either had a very specific use for that individual, or they had a _very_ powerful grudge. Either way, that guaranteed the hero in question a special type of hell.

Hizashi _knew_ this. He had been told all of this the first time Shouta had been captured for an extended period of time, nine years ago now. After two weeks, one of the senior heroes at his agency and one from the agency where Shouta worked had sat him down to explain to him just how bad it could be. They wanted him to understand that even after just two weeks Shouta would almost _certainly_ have some serious trauma, and each passing day just increased those odds.

Back then, Shouta had been missing for a little under a month before they'd finally found him. His rescue had been considered a miracle by underground standards, escaping captivity with no physical scars or damage to show for it beyond general weakness from being restrained for so long. Even so, it had still taken two months for Shouta to recover mentally from the ordeal enough to stop having night terrors. It had taken another month before he finally returned to the field, and nearly a full year before he could finally feel safe in an apartment alone.

Even now Hizashi still had no idea what happened during that time his friend had been missing, but given the timing and some changes he'd noted, he had suspicions that made his stomach churn to just _think_ about.

For that reason, he knew it was _cruel_ to have hoped his best friend might be alive this whole time. That last time had been unique in itself, sparing his friend from physical scars even if he had emotional trauma. This time would be absolutely different though, the length of time guaranteeing that Shouta's captors either wanted him dead... or wanted him to _suffer_.

And now that he'd confirmed his best friend wasn't a corpse, that meant the latter.

"Where is he now?" he asked, his voice hollow as he forced himself to keep it calm. Honestly he'd love nothing more than to _scream_ his frustration and grief to the world, but he knew this wasn't the time or place. He needed to focus, get as much information as possible.

"As far as we can tell, the Villain Alliance took him," Nighteye answered in Lady of the Night's place, drawing Hizashi's attention. The older Pro still stood in the hallway behind him, his golden eyes sharp as Hizashi turned to look at him with a sinking stomach. "We've already identified much of the violence as handiwork of the Alliance. As far as we can tell, they came to wipe out the group here." He nodded at the frame of the doorway, adding, "There _used_ to be a door here. Shigaraki Tomura used his Quirk to disintegrate it."

"He also used it to dissolve the chains attached to the wall," Lady of the Night interjected almost lazily, and Hizashi whirled to find she'd moved next to the wall. Her eyes still had that glow as she held the broken end of the chain, her gaze distant as if in a trance. "This chain was longer and attached to a metal collar. Shigaraki dissolved it to remove Eraserhead."

The heroine closed her eyes and gave a soft sigh, her head tipping back to blindly face the ceiling. "They didn't kill him on the spot, so we can assume they don't intend to kill him anytime soon though. I can't tell _why_ Shigaraki took him though. Eraser's emotional imprints overshadow any impressions he or the other villains might have left in this room, and they weren't thinking of him beforehand. All I know for sure is that he's probably alive."

She let the chain links slip through her fingers, clattering to the ground softly at her feet while Hizashi just watched numbly. He had no idea how to react to this news, how he should _feel_. Shouta was _alive_, but he was far from safe. They had no idea what the Villain Alliance could desire from him, why they'd go through the trouble of kidnapping him _again_.

Hizashi only knew one thing:

_He _would_ find Shouta, no matter how long it took._

* * *

Kas tapped his fingers along the table as he stared down at his phone, his gaze critical as he reread the messages. Saki had texted him about a tip-off to a brutal massacre in a supposedly abandoned building in Nabu, which had led to some interesting revelations about the Villain Alliance. She'd given him a steady string of updates of the investigation—all coded, of course, in case someone got their hands on their phones or the messages—listing each discovery up until her last message.

'_Found traces of Eraserhead. Alive, but missing. Need to focus._'

That had been over an hour ago, and since then Saki had been silent. It made sense, Eraserhead had been missing for over half a year so getting any information she could would take priority. The number of missing heroes who'd been found _alive_ after the three month mark could be counted on two hands, it was almost a miracle. If he was absent, then the Alliance must have taken him.

"Hah, what a bad day to be stuck on babysitting duty," he muttered to himself with a sigh. Even if his Quirk and skillset wouldn't be very helpful in this case, he'd love nothing more than to go over to the building and join her in searching the premises. At the very least they could bounce ideas off each other, try to piece together what could have gone through the Alliance's minds to steal Eraserhead.

Instead he was stuck here in Kamino though, watching over Ashido and Kirishima's apartment building. His eyes flicked out the window of the café where he'd set up camp, lazily studying their respective windows. Today had been quiet, which was par for the course so far. In this case, quiet was good because that meant there was no danger to his two charges, but that didn't make it less boring.

Yesterday had been surprisingly eventful, their friends Anjou and Kirameki showing up for an unexpected visit mid-day after school got canceled early. They'd stayed for a majority of the day, leaving just before dinner, and Kas idly wondered what they'd been doing. They still hadn't gotten a chance to interview the two thanks to Tsukauchi's own busy schedule, so he'd ask about it then.

Movement on the sidewalk caught his eye, and his gaze lazily flicked towards it to quickly assess the source. A man with curly light green hair was walking along, shoulders hunched and gaze flicking around. Kas shifted and sat a bit straighter as he watched, absently noting a distinct wariness to the man's movement. _Cautious and looking if anyone is watching. Could have malicious intent, or just general nervousness or paranoia._

Coming to a stop, the man pulled out a small silver orb from the pocket of his pants and Kas instantly surged to his feet, eyes widening. _Oh, shit—_

The man threw the orb at the ground and smoke _exploded_ from it, pale green gas immediately spreading from it. Cries of alarm sounded from other people sitting near the windows, but Kas ignored it as he raced down to the first floor of the café, mind already whirling as he darted to the front door while slipping into Oracle-mode.

_If I open it and run outside, what will happen?_

Flashes of himself gasping and coughing assaulted his brain, startled gasps echoing in the distance. Oracle stopped next to the door and reached into the pocket of his coat to pull out a black facemask with two thin, disk-shaped valves near the mouth. He pulled it over his face and reached for the handle, looking over his shoulder at the people behind him.

"Everyone get upstairs, NOW!" he ordered, his tone leaving no room for questions. To their credit everyone evacuated immediately, either because they realized he was a probable hero or because the mask made them think the opposite. The reason didn't matter, and this time when he grabbed the handle he didn't see any flashes of himself gasping for air.

He ran out into the street and straight to the ever-growing cloud of green. Visibility was low but he could hear some of the pedestrians coughing and hacking, and he quickly weighed his options. _What if I try to rescue them?_

To his right was a man with some sort of mammalian mutation, doubled over and hacking violently. Upon approaching him, Kas saw the man's still-hazy form startle and his tail swing out at his legs blindly on reflex. The tail had some sort of barbs on the end, and the feeling of them piercing the material of his pants and digging into his legs was accompanied by a faint burning sensation.

That would only happen if Oracle went right though.

Going left, Kas would find a coughing woman pulling a gas mask from her purse. "Well that's convenient," he remarked as he approached, startling as she whirled to face him. "Any reason you have a mask?" The woman hacked for a few seconds as she secured the mask to her face.

"I should be asking you!" she managed, and began turning knobs so it would begin filtering out any gas currently trapped inside.

"I'm a Pro Hero who grew up with a poison-loving sister," Kas retorted casually as he watched her gasp for breath. "What's your excuse?" She shot him a glare, clearly unimpressed by the answer but responding nonetheless.

"My nephew has a gas-based Quirk he's still learning to control. I always keep the mask in my purse in case he has any slip-ups."

A reasonable explanation, and that vitrol in her tone wasn't fake. So going after her was pointless. If Kas ran further in the specific direction she'd head, he'd find one more person, who the woman would inevitably reach and be able to guide to safety. _But what if I go to the _other_ voice in that direction?_

This time Kas would find a coughing woman being supported by a young man who had absolutely no reaction to the gas. Upon getting closer the man would look at him in alarm. "I'm a Pro Hero," Kas introduced, and the man nodded.

"I'm fine. I have a Quirk that lets me filter the air and most gases without getting harmed, so I'll get her out of the gas! But listen—this gas is harmless!"

"Oh?" Kas hummed in interest. "And how do you know _that_?"

"I'm a chemist at Detnerat! I work specifically with gas-based Quirks, so I've become really sensitive to the effects and can usually guess what kinds different gases can have when breathing it. I'm not feeling anything wrong with my body right now beyond the usual smoke inhalation. Either the effect's incredibly delayed or it's harmless, and my gut's saying the second one!"

And with that, Oracle could stop worrying about the rest of the pedestrians. The man could be wrong about the effects, and smoke inhalation _was_ still bad, but if it posed no immediate harm, then for now he decided to focus on the culprit. Less than a minute had passed since seeing the culprit throw down the smoke bomb, meaning he was almost certainly still in the area. So Kas changed mental gears to search for the culprit, resolved to ignore the coughing around him.

_If I go straight?_ He'd avoid any pedestrians and smack into a wall. If he veered a little to the side in either direction, more wall. Going left past the coughing mammalian man, he'd find another pedestrian, and beyond them the edge of the cloud. Opposite direction—_screw it._

He scoffed, deciding to stop with his Quirk for now and retreat. The gas obscured his vision too much, and he'd have better luck from a different vantage point where he could see clearly even if his Quirk wouldn't be as effective. He'd gotten a pretty good visual of the culprit—light green hair, purple shirt—so it would be easier to look from above.

A total of three seconds had elapsed since entering the gas before Oracle emerged, running straight to the alley between the café and the neighboring building. He grabbed the edge of a dumpster to flip himself on top of it, and from there he leaped towards the wall. A powerful kick had him ricocheting to the opposite wall and then kicked back towards the first, and within a few seconds he'd bounced between them to reach the rooftop.

From here he had a much better visual of the cloud below, already able to see people staggering out of the mess. As he scanned the street intently a flash of light green caught his eye, and he snapped his head to the side to see a male in a purple shirt not far from the outer edge of the gas. _Aha._

Oracle wasted no time in rushing over to the man's direction, leaping off the edge to land next to him. The man jumped at his sudden appearance and spun to stare at him in shock, eyes bulging. "Wh-what the hell—"

He didn't get a chance to finish before Oracle lunged—unfortunately for him though, there happened to be a good Samaritan nearby. "Leave him alone!" a rather large and bulky woman cried, throwing herself at him. He let out a startled squawk as he was tackled to the ground, the woman more muscle than feet.

In the present Oracle startled, whirling to face her before she could do anything. "Ma'am, I'm a Pro Hero," he assured her quickly—except as he did, he noticed a distinct red tinge to her eyes _while she was already charging at him again_.

"_Liar!_" she roared, charging at him, and Oracle cursed as he was tackled in yet another path. This time he was facing her, so he got a good whiff of _something_ clinging to her.

"You have _GOT_ to be kidding me!" he shouted back in the present once more, and jumped to the side to dodge the woman's charge. His original target took the opportunity to run, but Kas had to ignore him to focus on the woman.

He knew that smell, it was some kind of drug that had become popular on the streets recently. It didn't do anything like enhance Quirks or make them more aggressive or anything special like that. No, people high on it tended to be more likely to engage in fantasies and become unable to distinguish it from reality, earning it the nickname "_Liquid Dream._"

The facts: There was a cloud of gas with unknown effects and origin. Oracle currently had on a black face mask that had filtering properties. He had _also_ just jumped down from a rooftop right next to a man who was clearly the subject of his interest, and prepared to lunge at him.

Yeah. In her eyes he was _absolutely_ a villain that needed to be taken down, and there'd be no reasoning with this woman.

He growled in frustration as he skipped back to dodge a powerful swipe from the woman aimed at his jaw. First priority: subdue her, and THEN pursue the fleeing culprit. Lucky for him, his Quirk made it easy to see every single blow before they landed, and even without it he'd honed his reflexes for _years_. To any outside observer he was always just a step ahead of her, smoothly stepping just outside the reach of every desperate kick and punch.

Most of them Oracle was able to predict and dodge without his Quirk. This lady wasn't a trained fighter at all, telegraphing her moves clearly and sloppily. Even so sometimes she'd get lucky and his Quirk would automatically give him a glimpse of her making contact, and he had to wince at the force he felt in some of those glimpses. While she might not be trained to fight, she still had plenty of physical strength.

He let her push him back a bit towards a wall at which point he spun and ran at it, making her roar and chase after him. His momentum let him manage a few steps vertically up the bricks, managing to get halfway up before kicking off and flipping through the air. As he sailed over the woman she roared in outrage, but her own momentum was too strong to stop and she crashed into the wall.

Oracle landed behind her gracefully, and quickly pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket. The woman was dazed from the impact, and he had no problem securing her hands behind her back. Luckily the impact seemed to have jarred some of the drug's effects—that or left her too sore to move, since she didn't immediately rile up to attack him again. "Call the police!" he shouted at a nearby pedestrian, and then took off running after the original culprit.

By now the man had enough time to run and turn a couple corners, which would push the limits of his Quirk if he tried to pursue it. He stopped short at the intersection, seeing no trace of the man in any direction, and took a deep breath.

"Did anyone see a guy in a purple shirt and with green hair?" he shouted, startling the gathering crowd who'd been drawn by the clamor from the gas. Soon enough some people started yelling and pointing down a particular street, and Oracle took off running in the direction they'd pointed. This time he didn't bother with his Quirk, darting to the nearest intersection and glancing both directions as he did.

In a stroke of luck he saw the man ducking into a door, and a vicious grin took residence on his face under the mask as he raced after him. He burst into a small convenience store, startling the people inside including the green-haired man who was halfway to the counter. The man whirled around to face Oracle, eyes wide, and Oracle began to approach only to stop.

_If he lunged at the man and pinned him down—_

"I-I didn't do anything, I swear!" the man cried as Kas shoved his face into the tile.

"That's what they all say," he snapped in response.

"Really, I d-d-didn't! I-I-I—I—" His breathing picked up and he began hyperventilating, falling into the starts of a panic attack.

_If he didn't lunge and just asked—_

"What were you doing at the street near the gas cloud?"

"I-I—I—" The man made a strangled sound, tears in his eyes as his breathing began picking up once more. Hyperventilating would follow very soon after that.

_If he asked the cashier—_

"Do you know this man?"

"Why the hell would I tell _you_?" the cashier demanded, obviously suspicious.

Oracle scowled and tore off his mask. _If NOW he just said—_

"I'm a Pro Hero," he snapped, tone cool and professional. "Do you know this man?"

"Wh-what? Uh—Yutaro, why is this guy chasing you?" The cashier turned to the man in question and the glimpse ended there, because Kas _couldn't see_ paths that didn't include direct reactions to him or his decisions. Everything he saw had to be directed at him specifically or it would cut off abruptly. He almost growled in frustration, but _instead if he just asked_—

"Does this man have a history of panic attacks?"

"W-what!? Uh, no, but—Oh shit, _Yutaro_—!"

_If he asked—_

"I'm a Pro Hero. Does this man have any medical conditions?"

"Uh, w-what!? I mean, uh, y-yeah? Asthma, and—"

_Asthma._

Oracle cut off his Quirk at that word, the tension bleeding from his body all at once as he took a deep, calming breath. "Sir, if you have an inhaler, you need to get it out now," he told the panicked man—Yutaro, apparently—in front of him. "Running that hard is about to trigger your asthma." Yutaro's eyes widened before he scrambled to find the device in his pockets, the cashier letting out an alarmed shout as he rushed around the counter to him.

Asthma. This man had _asthma_. That wasn't enough to absolve him of all potential guilt, but releasing a smoke bomb like that would definitely trigger an attack. He waited for Yutaro to take a deep breath through the inhaler while the cashier fussed over him, the second man shooting Oracle a panicked and accusing look. "What the hell's going on!?"

"Just now, a man with light green hair and a shirt just like that released an unknown gas on a nearby street," Oracle intoned calmly. That made the cashier startle, eyes going wide as he ogled him.

"Wait, what? And what, you think it was _Yutaro_? Did you even see—"

"I did," Oracle cut in calmly. "As I said, the culprit had that _exact_ shirt." That seemed to leave the cashier at a loss for words. Next to him Yutaro lowered the inhaler, his breathing calmer and steadier now.

"I-I, earlier a guy with hair just like mine paid me to wear this shirt and follow him," he said slowly, and that got everyone's attention.

"What?" the cashier asked dumbly. "The heck—"

"I-I swear, I didn't know he was planning to do something l-like _that_!" Yutaro exclaimed, looking at Oracle pleadingly. "He said he was going to pull a prank on his b-brother, make him think I was him so he could sneak up and surprise him. He went around a c-corner to hide, but then I heard a b-bang and people sc-_screaming_, and when I went to look I saw that g-giant c-cloud, a-an-and—"

"Stop, you're working yourself up too much," Oracle cut in, and Yutaro clamped his mouth shut. He continued to stare at Oracle wide-eyed, silently begging him to believe him.

_If he rushed forward and attacked the guy, pulling out the knife in his pocket and slashing it through Yutaro's side—_

"Tell me the truth NOW or I'll kill you!"

"I-I AM!" Yutaro screamed over the panicked shouts of everyone else as he clutched the bleeding wound. "I TH-THOUGHT IT WAS JUST A PRANK!"

Oracle didn't attack of him of course. Doing that would be unethical, and the opposite of what a hero should do. A civilian like that had incredibly low pain tolerance, and would lack the willpower and training to hold up under questioning in such extreme circumstances.

_Which meant he was telling the truth._

Oracle scowled, shaking his head. "I need you to come with me to make a report to the police," he said. "There are likely other witnesses who saw the person who looked like you, so I'll escort you to avoid any confusion. I'm a Pro Hero, so I can help you talk to them." The guy looked fairly panicked but nodded nonetheless, and soon they were heading back to the scene of the crime.

By now the gas had surprisingly dispersed, courtesy of one officer who looked _very_ happy as he basically suctioned it up with his mouth. "He, uh, has a kind of vacuum Quirk," another officer commented sheepishly when they approached him. "He said the gas is actually pretty harmless, unless you have breathing difficulties like asthma." Another point to Detnerat guy, Oracle noted with an amused snort.

From there, sorting out the incident took little time. He helped Yutaro explain his story, the man much calmer now and able to provide more detail. The true culprit had approached him about a prank on his brother apparently, noting their similar hairstyles. He happened to have two matching shirts in his bag, explaining he'd ordered one online but had gotten a second one and that he'd been on his way to the store to return it when he'd noticed Yutaro.

Agreeing to that sort of plan was beyond stupid in Kas's opinion, because the story was so obviously _fake_. Maybe that was more obvious to him because he was naturally paranoid, or maybe it was obvious to _everyone_ and the five thousand yen the man offered had clouded Yutaro's judgment. Either way, Yutaro agreed to go to the police station to give a more proper statement there, and Kas waved the cruiser off before turning to the apartment building.

As exciting as this had been, Kas still had a job to do here. He'd acted because there were no other heroes in the area, but now that he'd taken care of it, he should check on the two kids in the apartment building. No doubt they were curious as hell after seeing all the commotion just outside their windows... except when he looked at their rooms, the blinds on the windows were still closed.

The sight made him pause, his eyes narrowing. Plenty of other people leaned against the glass to peer outside, and still more windows were empty but had their curtains and blinds pulled aside when they'd been closed earlier. Yet Kirishima and Ashido's windows remained unchanged. Everything he'd read about Ashido Mina, and their few interactions so far, pointed to her to be the curious type who'd absolutely look outside the window in this sort of scenario...

"_Shit,_" he whispered in English, and raced into the building. Any passing pedestrians with a mind-reading Quirk would probably be stunned at the litany of curse words playing in his head in multiple languages as he dashed up the stairs, running straight to Ashido's apartment. When he grabbed the doorknob he found it locked of course, and he didn't hesitate to kick it down.

"_Ashido!_" he shouted, but was greeted with only silence. A panicked glance around the room ended with him staring at a note taped to the fridge, something that hadn't been there on Sunday, and he practically _flew_ over to look at it.

'_Oracle-san, I'm sorry but my people need me! Kiri's coming too! We'll explain someday, I swear, but for now this is goodbye! Ashido, over and out!_'

Kas stared at the note in dead silence for several seconds.

_If he punched in the fridge—_

His arm would break, but it'd be cathartic as _hell_.

* * *

Anjou might be an evil genius or something. Mina practically vibrated with excitement as she and Kiri raced down a street, carrying bags loaded with all the essentials for their adventure. They had escaped through the back door of the apartment building only a minute earlier, and every second they ran made Mina's pulse beat faster and faster. She had a burner phone open to a text message from Anjou.

'_Your ride's almost there,_' she wrote. '_Once it pulls up, you two just need to hop in the back & GO. The driver knows where to go. I'll catch up later when I'm done on my end._'

'_Thanks!_' she texted back, and told Kiri, "She says the ride's up ahead!" Kiri nodded and shifted nervously as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Is this really okay?" he asked, and Mina had to silently wonder the same thing. Behind them they could hear people shouting and coughing, and Mina had to resist the urge to run back to see what was going on. They had been waiting by the back door for Anjou to give the signal to go, so they didn't know what sort of distraction she had arranged out front.

She bit her lip and said, "An-chan says it won't be anything actually serious." Anjou had texted them about it before giving the signal to run. She said she didn't know the full details of the distraction, but it wouldn't be anything harmful. Still, Mina found herself frowning. "If you want to back out now, you can. I won't hold it against you." She glanced back to shoot Kiri a reassuring look as she spoke, and he bit his lip but frowned before shaking his head.

"No. I—I'm in too deep now. If I've come this far, I might as well keep going. Plus Ultra, right?" He flashed a weak, uncertain smile at the last bit, which Mina mirrored with an eager grin of her own.

"Plus Ultra!" she agreed with a fist pump. The fact he'd insisted on coming along _still_ threw her for a loop, and made her even more excited even if she felt a little guilty. This didn't _really_ involve him after all, and by coming along he'd be giving up_ way _more than Mina was. By running away with her now, he was basically removing any outs to go back to his normal life.

As bad as she felt about him basically uprooting his _whole life_ for this though, part of her felt relieved he was coming along. Having someone else tag along boosted her confidence, even if he wasn't _her_ Kirishima. Anjou couldn't come, saying she had some stuff to do and needed to go to school to avoid suspicion. In her own words, she couldn't uproot _her_ life just for this or it'd make it harder to do what _she_ needed to.

Honestly, Mina _still_ had no idea what the heck Anjou had planned. She'd kept it mostly to herself in case Kiri changed his mind, and maybe that should worry her, but... Mina trusted her. That little voice in the back of her head said that An-chan was a good person, and wouldn't do something that'd hurt them (even if she _was_ a sneaky hacker).

The phone buzzed with a text. '_He's stopping, turn left at the next corner._' Mina turned the corner as instructed to an empty side street, just in time to see a silver car pull up to the curb. The window rolled down as Mina and Kiri raced towards it, a plain-looking guy with short black hair and kinda tired eyes looking out. "I'd ask if you're the ones I was told needed a ride, but I doubt many people have pink skin."

That was good enough confirmation for Mina. She practically dove into the back seat at the man's invitation, pushing herself all the way to the far seat while Kiri followed her. The man rolled up his window and twisted his head slightly to look back at them while they removed their backpacks. "Buckle up, we can't go until you do."

The teens scrambled to do just that, settling their backpacks on the empty seat between them. As Mina plugged in her buckle she glanced at the driver with narrow eyes. "You're not, like, a villain or something, right?" she asked warily.

The young man snorted as if she'd just said some joke while Kiri's eyes practically bulged from their sockets. "Wait, _what_!?" he yelped. "Oh crapcrap_crap_—"

"Bit late to ask that, don't you think?" the driver asked with a wry grin, turning to face forward. "Well you can relax, I'm not a bad guy. If you're _really_ worried, you can use that phone to call the police at any point. Please don't though, I'd rather _not_ get arrested," he added with a half-hearted laugh.

At that point the car lurched into motion, making them both jolt in their seats. Mina relaxed a bit because the guy had a point, she could easily call the police if he did anything shifty. Plus if anything happened, An-chan and Kumiko knew they were riding with this guy and could call the police instead. "Uh, okay?" Kiri said anxiously. "Can you at least tell us who you are and what's going on? Anjou didn't tell us much about the plan."

"Well, I don't know much either," the driver said with a sheepish-sounding laugh. "I'm just doing this as a favor for someone else, I've only met Anjou once so I don't know much more than you. But my name is Haimawari Koichi, and I'll be your chauffeur until we reach Odawara."

* * *

**Got more fan art from Isaac7568/endlessshinsou on Tumblr! This time of Aiko! Go check out my tumblr (cannibalisticapple, same as here) and look at the fan art tag for it!**

**So much to talk about! I've been telling people about my headcanon about the "Three Month Rule" since Aizawa's disappearance was first established (muahaha?), so good to finally show it here!**

**Here's the first view of Kas/Oracle's Quirk: Precognitive Reflex! No where near as strong or long-range as Sir Nighteye's Quirk, but still very useful and makes him look psychic. I****f it's not obvious, in his visions he always thinks of himself as Kas, even if he's thinking of himself as Oracle outside his visions. He slides into Oracle-mode during fights and serious Pro Hero work, and in this case slid out after getting the suspect/witness to the police.**

**Also: cameo from Koichi! I have not read Vigilantes yet, but I know a lot of you do and I needed a chauffeur for Ashido and Kirishima, so perfect fit!**

**Question for next time: Assuming OFA powers up pre-existing Quirks like in fanon (I don't think there's actually any canon evidence it does that), who would be the most disastrous/chaotic choice to get it?**


	41. Chapter 41: Weird Week

Chapter 41

.::Weird Week::.

Tsuyu was having a... _weird_ week.

She did not use that term often, but that seemed to be the best word she could come up with. Today she and Habuko had been given what had come to be called "Todoroki duty" yet again, meaning they would be in charge of watching Endeavor's wayward son while searching for this supposed Tokoyami. They still had yet to figure out just _what_ was going on with his story, but there was plenty of room for concern.

One of Rockfish's birds had led them to a movie theater, which marked the third time they'd seen this particular person. Repeat visits to the same person had become increasingly common, and unfortunately Rockfish couldn't get the birds to stop it since the sightings were always reported by different birds. Today they had yet to find a single new person, much to Habuko's growing annoyance.

"Seriously, this is getting ridiculous," the snake-girl complained. "And it's so freaking cold! Can we just call it off for the day?"

"We should go find a café for lunch," Tsuyu proposed, tugging up her scarf a bit over her mouth. "It's already noon. Maybe we can call Rockfish and ask him to try talking to the birds one last time, kero." It was a thinly veiled way of agreeing with her friend's request. Though the clock had only just struck noon, Tsuyu would rather stop searching for the day.

Truthfully, the cold was starting to get to her. Winter had always bothered her since her Quirk made her sensitive to the cold, as did Habuko's, so she'd rather not search all day long. She'd agreed to take on the duty since the weather forecast had seemed okay, but the temperatures had plummeted well below predictions. If Rockfish's birds would only send them after the same people, she would prefer to just stop and go somewhere warm.

She turned to Todoroki. "Yuki-kun, would you be alright if we stopped searching for now?" she asked, but paused when she noticed he'd fallen behind. He stood several meters back, his gaze directed at the posters lining the walls. She tilted her head in thought as she glanced at the posters. She didn't know much about any of the movies currently in theaters, their lifestyle made it hard to keep up with new releases.

Habuko had the same dilemma, but she still joined Todoroki to look at the poster which held his attention. "Do you want to go see that one?" she asked curiously. "It looks kinda artsy, but if it means getting out of the cold I'm down for it. Midori, we have some money, right?" she added, glancing at Tsuyu.

Tsuyu tapped her chin with a thoughtful, quiet croak. "Yes, we should have enough I think, kero. We can get snacks, too." A movie would work just as well as going to a café.

"I... don't want to see it," Todoroki piped up, voice quiet. He had a faint furrow to his eyebrows as he stared at the poster, and Tsuyu decided to join them as well for a better look. As Habuko said, this movie looked rather artsy compared to most of the posters here, showing a blond boy watching a balloon fly away with a faint smile on his face. The title was foreign with the Japanese translation below, the syllables incomprehensible to her.

"That guy looks familiar," Habuko muttered, squinting at the poster. "Ugh, why doesn't this one say anyone's names?"

"Aoyama?" Tsuyu heard Todoroki say faintly, and she glanced at him curiously.

"Aoyama, Aoyama..." Habuko repeated the name, and then snapped her fingers. "Oh right, Aoyama Yuga! That part-French model. I see him in fashion magazines sometimes. I guess he's finally moved on to acting, then."

"I didn't think you were interested in that sort of thing, Yuki-kun," Tsuyu remarked, and Todoroki gazed at the poster with a faint frown.

"I'm not," he said shortly. "He's in my class." A brief silence followed the statement, neither of them knowing how to respond. Eventually though he turned and walked away, the two girls following with silent looks at each other.

As far as she could tell, Todoroki fully believed he came from another dimension where he attended UA. They hadn't gotten many details about it, as he seemed oddly hesitant to share _anything_, but he'd shared enough to make it clear he had a rather elaborate set of memories. After all, it was harder to get more elaborate than _multiple_ villain attacks throughout the year.

Having a famous model as a classmate though? In the _hero_ course, no less?

Tsuyu didn't know enough about Aoyama Yuga to know the likelihood of him doing such a thing. Habuko recognized him though, so she stepped a little closer. "Would you ever have guessed that?" she asked quietly, and the snake girl snorted.

"Not sure. He's just a pretty face. He might like the fame though, I guess." Tsuyu nodded and turned forward once more, studying Todoroki's back thoughtfully. _Yet another piece of the enigma that was Todoroki Shouto's memories._

Most concerning so far was his connection to the man named Dabi, though. They'd told the others what he'd said about the man's actions in his own world, but so far none of them recognized the name so they couldn't tell how true it might be. At the very least he wasn't a famous supervillain, but they all knew that the worst villains never made the news.

Either way, _someone_ was calling Todoroki's original phone, which created its own set of concerns.

At this point they'd probably need to ask Kuroe if he'd heard of Dabi. They hadn't kept him in the loop so far, because despite everything he did for them, Kuroe ultimately wasn't part of the runaway network. Don't get her wrong, Tsuyu and the others would be forever grateful for his aid and kindness in helping them survive on the streets. However, they _also_ knew enough to recognize when someone had ties to the underworld.

Tsuyu didn't know just how deep Kuroe's connections ran, but he had access to resources and information most people simply _shouldn't_. While they knew he would never betray them, that still put him at greater risk of being interrogated by people with less than savory intentions. If he met a person with a mind-reading Quirk, or some other ability that could glean information against his well, their secrets could be discovered in an instant.

Still, at this rate they'd need to take the plunge and at least ask if he knew about this Dabi character. They wouldn't even need to mention Todoroki specifically; they'd asked him about plenty of other villains before. Asking about another person wouldn't be any different from their other requests.

As they walked along Habuko suddenly jabbed her side with her elbow, making Tsuyu glance at her curiously. The snake girl was staring at something across the street, and Tsuyu followed her gaze to see a TV in the front window of a store, at which point she froze. The screen showed footage of a person in silver armor racing down a street while a man dressed up in a fancy suit skipped through the air above him.

_Gentle Criminal._

Though they were too far away to make out much detail, Tsuyu could see the red ticker bar on the left side of the screen that signaled breaking news. Her stomach curled, knowing instantly that this wasn't just old footage but live. She and Habuko exchanged pointed glances, their faces equally grim before turning back to Todoroki. He hadn't noticed the TV yet, his head tipped back to watch one of Rockfish's birds.

If he knew that Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow had moved on, what would he do? Would he leave Odawara to follow them? Tsuyu didn't know, and she decided she couldn't risk finding out right now. "Yuki-kun, you never answered my question," she said abruptly, making him pause and glance back at her with a faintly puzzled look.

"What?"

"I asked if you would mind stopping the search for now," she told him. "You got distracted by the poster though, so you might not have heard, kero." Todoroki frowned slightly.

"It still seems early, though."

"Yeah, but it's also _cold_!" Habuko piped up bitterly, her lips curling back as she spoke. "Yuki, _you_ might not mind it because of your fire or ice or whatever, but me and Midori have snake and frog mutations." To his credit Todoroki realized what she was getting at immediately, his visible eye widening with mild alarm.

"Oh, right," he said, frowning heavily. "I'm sorry, I forgot about that. I could try to help you warm up with my fire if you want, but..." He trailed off and shook his head. "No, you already went out of your way enough to help me. We can stop and find somewhere warm. I can keep looking later with someone else."

"Thank you, Yuki-kun," Tsuyu said and meant it, genuinely grateful to get out of the cold. Still, as they began steering him towards a small coffee shop they knew to be relatively safe she couldn't help but worry. From the corner of her eye she could see Habuko discreetly texting the others, no doubt informing them about Gentle Criminal. They needed to figure out how to handle this, and fast.

* * *

Around the same time a silver car pulled up to a small, two-story house, Haimawari turning around to face his passengers. "Well, this ride has been fun, but we're finally here so this is where we part," he told them cheerfully. Mina nodded, beaming at him.

"Thank you so much for the ride!"

"Yeah," Kiri agreed with a smaller smile. "And uh, good luck on becoming a hero. I'm glad you got that second chance!"

"You and me both, kid," Haimawari chuckled, and the pair gave him some more farewells as they climbed out of the car. Despite Mina's initial wariness, Haimawari turned out to be a pretty good (and cool!) guy. Turns out he'd been a vigilante for a few years after missing his high school entrance exam, cutting off his dreams of getting a license. After the UA Massacre he'd had to cut down on his activity a bit for his own safety, but some of his hero contacts had recently been reaching out to help him become more legitimate.

They waved as his car drove off, and only after it vanished from sight did they turn to face the house. It looked so... _normal_, but Mina guessed she shouldn't be so surprised about that. "Ready, Kiri?" she asked, and her friend looked a bit uneasy but nodded.

"Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be," he muttered, and Mina marched up to the front door and knocked. Not even a second later it opened, making them jump in surprise. A guy with black hair and bright orange eyes stood there, sighing as he looked over them.

"So you must be Ashido and Kirishima, right?" he asked, sounding tired. The pair frowned at that, exchanging brief, wary glances, and he sighed again. "Yeah, no, of course you are. Enough standing here, we can talk inside. It's freezing and it's starting to leak inside." The guy stepped back so they could enter, the pair scurrying into the relative warmth of his house.

"Uh, not to be rude, but who are you?" Kiri asked as they bent down to remove their shoes.

"...She didn't tell you anything, did she?" the guy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You mean Anjou-san? Uh, no, not really."

"Figures. She's always had a flair for the dramatic." The man snorted and rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it too much. The name's Kuroe."

"Kuroe?" Mina repeated, her eyebrows furrowing. For some reason something about that name felt weirdly familiar, but she didn't know why. She _also_ didn't know why she now felt just the slightest bit more relaxed and comfortable around him.

"If you want my full name, you're not getting it," he said. "Anyways, come on, guest room's down here." He gestured for them to follow him as he headed deeper into the house, the pair grabbing their backpacks as they jogged after him. "Just so you know it's only got one bed though, so unless you two feel up to sharing, one of you will have to use the couch or floor. You guys can crash here until she comes by on Friday, or until you figure out... whatever." He waved vaguely as he spoke, and next to her Kiri frowned.

"Uh, what exactly did Anjou tell you?" he asked. "I mean, obviously she told you we were coming, but she didn't tell _us_ anything about what she had planned, so..."

"Not much, honestly," Kuroe replied with a shrug. "She said you guys had some stuff you needed to take care of that you couldn't do while under hero watch, and needed help arranging a distraction and a ride here." He shook his head as he muttered under his breath, "I still can't believe she agreed to it so easily and sent me freaking _selfies_. I feel like I unleashed a monster..."

Okay, that last bit was kinda confusing and alarming. "Who, Anjou?" Mina asked.

"No, someone else," Kuroe groaned, sounding _very_ tired. "Forget it. Anyways, here's the guest room." He pushed open a door to reveal a pretty average-looking room with a single queen-sized bed. "The dresser's mostly empty, but there is some stuff, so if it fits feel free to take it. Again though, you guys are gonna have to either share or decide on who's getting the floor or couch." Mina and Kiri exchanged faint grimaces. As much as she liked Kiri, she didn't really want to sleep in the same bed as him.

"I'll take the couch," she volunteered, making Kiri startle.

"Wait, what? I was going to say that!"

"You already volunteered to come along even though _I'm_ the one who needed to run away," Mina pointed out, hands on her hips. "You didn't _have_ to come, but you basically gave up your whole life anyway. So you should at _least_ have the comfier place to sleep." It only seemed to natural to her, but Kiri still looked uncomfortable and doubtful.

"But... But... You're a girl," he said lamely, and then froze as he realized what he'd just said.

Mina went very, _very_ still at his words, her eyes narrowing. "And?" she challenged lowly, and Kiri's face twisted in panic.

"N-never mind!" he said quickly "I'll take the bed!"

"That's what I thought." She nodded in satisfaction, and behind her she heard Kuroe snort, his mouth twisting into an amused smirk.

"Word of advice kid, _never_ look down on girls," he told Kiri lightly. "Doesn't matter if you're trying to be a 'gentleman' or whatever. Take it from me, girls can be fucking terrifying."

"Yeah, I know," Kiri muttered, while Mina just marched into the room with an air of smug satisfaction.

"I'm still going to get changed in here though," she added as she dropped her backpack on the dresser. "No way am I keeping my clothes out in the living room or wherever!"

"...Um, I kinda feel like this is a trap," Kiri said, and this time Kuroe chuckled low and quiet.

"I think that should settle everything for now. I've got to get back to work so try not to make too much noise. If you're really bored, I've got some old console in the living room you could play. Just don't go out. Especially _you_, Pinkie," he added with a pointed look at Mina. "If you two were under hero watch, I _guarantee_ there will be people looking for you, and we don't have the stuff for a disguise for you."

Mina pouted, because even if she knew he was right she still felt a bit bummed at being essentially stuck on house arrest even now. Kiri looked more thoughtful though as he lingered in the door. "_Could_ we disguise Ashido?" he wondered. "I mean, she kinda stands out, right?"

"Throw on a wig, sunglasses and some face paint," Kuroe deadpanned. "Pink skin is unusual, but not _that_ unusual. The eyes and horns are the biggest giveaways, but you can cover those up. With the right makeup, you can even make it look like she's got scales or even fur under her eyes."

"Oh, or maybe a raccoon mask!" Mina said with a bright grin, thinking of Bakugou's nickname for her.

"Sure kid, whatever floats your boat," Kuroe said, rolling his eyes.

"Would that really be enough, though?" Kiri asked skeptically.

"Yeah. I have a friend whose Quirk was basically just changing her hair and eye colors. Literally everything else about her stayed the same, but I can say for a _fact_ most of our classmates wouldn't recognize her if she didn't wear this one hairclip and eye patch all the time." He smirked at the memory, adding, "And even then, she managed to convince people she was a transfer student three different times."

"Ooh, that sounds fun!" Mina grinned and Kuroe snorted.

"Yeah. That woman is _something_," he muttered under his breath, before continuing more loudly, "But either way, I don't really have the supplies for any of that on hand. The heat's too much to bother trying anyway. Anyways, I _really_ need to get back to work now. Watch TV or play games or whatever, but like I said, don't make too much noise. I'll be in the kitchen working on my laptop if you need anything."

They nodded and watched him leave, at which point Kiri entered the bedroom to drop his own bag on the bed. Neither of them seemed to feel like talking anymore, just taking a few moments to sort of decompress. Kiri opened his bag to search for something, while Mina pulled out the phone Anjou had lent her and frowned at it.

She _really_ wanted to text Anjou or Kumiko and let them know they'd gotten there safely, but Anjou had made her promise _not_ to do that. She'd said that the police would be sure to question them as soon as they realized Mina and Kiri had run away, and would probably want to look at their phones to see if they'd texted or called them. Earlier Anjou had been texting her from a _different_ disposable phone, which still weirded her out.

"Why do you think Anjou has so many spare phones?" she wondered aloud.

"I don't know, maybe it's something to do with her Quirk?" Kiri shrugged, pulling out a book from his bag. Mina wrinkled her nose as she recognized it as one of their textbooks, which, _ew_. He didn't look any happier as he looked down at it. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna try to work on some homework for a while."

"But you _hate_ homework," she pointed out. "And we ran away, so we don't have to do school anyway!"

"I know," he said with a grimace at the textbook. "But I promised myself that I'd try to at least get this week's stuff done so I won't be too far behind when we go back. My folks would probably kill me otherwise..." That last remark had Mina's mood sobering. Right, their families had no idea what was going on...

Mina felt a new rush of guilt at the thought. She'd thought of her parents now and then, but she hadn't spoken to them since waking up in this world. It just felt weird when she wasn't _their_ Mina, you know? And they lived separately anyway, so it was just easier to, well... _not_ think about them. But _they_ didn't know that. As far as they knew, Mina just suddenly threw herself into a hero fight, and then she suddenly ran away for no reason.

_Sorry, other Mina..._ She mentally apologized to this world's Ashido Mina for the distress she'd put her (their?) parents in. Maybe she should have written them a note or something, but what would she have even said? She didn't really think they'd be totally understanding about the whole "_I'm actually from another dimension_" thing; if anything it'd probably scare them more since they'd think she was insane or something.

Then again, why didn't _they_ reach out to her? That had Mina pausing, a frown unconsciously stretching across her face. She managed to fight a big villain on local TV, and had to go to the police station and have a Pro Hero watching her and _everything_! They didn't even call her though, which in retrospect was actually _really_ weird. They weren't overprotective or anything, but she'd still expect _something_. And on that note... come to think of it...

Her phone didn't have either of her parents in the contacts.

"Nope!" she said out loud, making Kiri jump in surprise. He shot her a curious look, but she ignored him as she turned around. She'd already resolved to not think about it, so she instead began rooting around her backpack before pulling out her objective with a triumphant noise. From the corner of her eye she saw Kiri staring at it wide-eyed.

"Ashido, did you _seriously_ pack a JoyStation Anima?" he asked.

"Yep!" she confirmed cheerfully as she switched it on. She grinned as a rhythm game loaded, plopping onto the bed to start playing. Video games might not really be essential like clothes or food, but if Mina had learned anything this past weekend, it was that boredom was the worst thing _ever_. Even if they came here with a goal, that didn't mean they'd be busy _all_ the time.

She needed something to occupy herself until An-chan could arrive—and something to take her mind off everything else wrong with this world. Some games sounded absolutely perfect.

* * *

**Me while writing this: "Wait, did I ever mention Ashido's parents in this world?"**

**Also me: "...I don't have any idea what her parents are like and don't really want to write their reactions to Ashido running away, and this world IS really screwed, so..."**

**(Seriously though, did I ever mention them? If I did, say the word and I'll change this.)**

**Question for next time: Ou******tside of villains, **what ******two charac**********ters**** would be the WORST choice ******to send back in ******time? (I mean ******this in a purely comedic sense. Like imagine Inasa wi**********th all **************the memories of ever****************y******************thing ************tha****t happens in canon, so he goes ****to UA after********** all and **********tries ****to befriend Bakugou and Todoroki****.)**


	42. Chapter 42: Kaminari Jinxed It

Chapter 42

.::Kaminari Jinxed It::.

At approximately twelve thirty PM, Iida Tenya found himself not in his bedroom waiting for the next streamed lecture to start like he should be, but instead seated in a small café halfway across the city from the Team Idaten headquarters.

Why? Because he had been invited to go to lunch by some of the sidekicks at Team Idaten, and they got called to help deal with Gentle Criminal halfway through it.

"Nii-san, please do not feel the need to drop everything and rush over here," he said into his cell phone, feeling just slightly exasperated at his older brother's worry.

"_But Tenya, you're all alone in public!_" his brother argued. "_You know how dangerous that is!_"

Tenya _did_ know, it was why he didn't protest attending online classes which he found much more stifling compared to a traditional classroom setting. Nonetheless, he had to insist. "I understand your concern, but I promise I am perfectly safe. This café is reasonably populated and highly public, so I doubt anyone would risk trying anything in broad daylight. Your work comes first."

"_I don't know,_" Tensei muttered, sounding uncertain. "_A lot can happen in an hour. I could run over, get you home, and then finish it._"

"That would take approximately half an hour, and your shift ends in an hour," Tenya countered. "That would take too much of your time, so I insist you finish it. You've already wasted enough time today thanks to Gentle Criminal. I'll be fine here for an hour."

"_A lot can happen in an hour,_" Tensei muttered, but Tenya could hear the defeat in his voice. "_But alright, fine. I'll finish it, but _only_ because I know you'll try to scold me for leaving early._" His voice took on a slightly more playful note, even if worry still tinged it, and Tenya felt himself smile.

"Only because your job is important," he replied. "I'll see you in an hour, nii-san. Now please get back to work, you've already wasted enough time on this call."

"_Yeah, yeah,_" Tensei agreed. "_See you then, Tenya._" The call ended with a click, and Tenya lowered his phone with a sigh. As if on cue waitress appeared giving him a sympathetic smile as she refilled his drink.

"I don't know what's going on, but it sounds like you might be stuck here a while longer," she said. "Do you want a slice of pie on the house while you wait? Today's special is lemon merengue."

He didn't know how much she'd overheard, but he smiled nonetheless. "That would be lovely, thank you," he replied. "But if you bring me dessert, I insist I pay for it. It's only right."

"Okay then honey, I'll be back in a few minutes," she told him, and bustled off to the kitchen while Tenya quietly sank in his chair. While he'd reassured Tensei he would be fine, he still felt a bit antsy in public like this. As the youngest child of the prestigious Iida family, known for producing multiple generations of Pro Heroes, he was a valuable target. After Todoroki Shouto disappeared last year, that protective streak had only increased.

Fortunately this café seemed fairly safe, and Tenya had taken steps to disguise himself before leaving the house. Namely, one of the sidekicks had used some makeup around his eyes to make it look like he had scales and a _lot_ of freckles had been added. No photos of himself had been released to the public, so hopefully this would be enough to throw off anyone who might notice the Iida family resemblance.

Really, Tenya felt more frustrated he wouldn't be able to watch the class live. Cell phones couldn't access the school's portal for security reasons, and he hadn't brought any of his textbooks so he couldn't study either. For now, he had to content himself with eating pie and reading news articles on his phone.

He did just that for about fifteen minutes when he noticed people chattering with tones that sounded slightly more urgent around him. He looked up curiously to see their gazes directed out a nearby window, and when he followed their looks he felt himself freeze. There in the middle of the street was a woman with a fiery red mohawk and glowing red-violet discs of energy in her hands engaged in battle with two costumed individuals he'd never seen before.

That alone was alarming, but Tenya's eyes widened as she threw one of the discs at one of mystery individuals like a frisbee. The person dodged out of the way, but the disc hit the streetlamp behind them and his eyes widened as it cut halfway into it before dissipating.

Cold horror washed over him all at once. Tenya didn't recognize her face, but he recognized that Quirk. His brother Tensei had warned him about a villainess with some sort of energy discs that basically acted as giant saw blades, able to slice through plenty of materials. One of the sidekicks at the agency had been hospitalized just last week after her attack managed to hit his legs.

He sprang to his feet immediately, slamming his hands on the table as he did to grab everyone's attention. "Everyone, please step away from the windows!" he called. "We need to evacuate to a back room out of her line of sight!"

A nearby man huffed. "Kid, I get you're freaked out with a fight so close to us, but we don't need to go _that_ far," he said. "The fight's out there, there's no reason for her to come in _here_. We just need to get away from the windows in case they break."

Some of the other people murmured in quiet agreement, backing away from the window but not trying to do anything more than that. Tenya didn't back down though, shaking his head. "No, you don't understand! That woman is a dangerous villain who Pro Heroes have been trying to catch for the past two months! Attacking civilians is _absolutely_ within her known patterns!"

From what Tensei described, the woman seemed to be more of a thrill-seeker than anything, fighting and terrorizing people for the fun of it rather than seeking some sort of gain. She had a penchant for causing massive property damage, both to attract Pro Heroes for a better fight and to generally wreak havoc. To that end, she also liked to drag in nearby civilians.

As he spoke he glanced out the window to check her position, only to jolt as he saw her fling one of the discs at the window of another nearby building. Her opponents were no where _near_ that building—they were actually _behind_ her, but she had a vicious grin as the disc shattered the glass. His chest tightened with horror because he could see _people_ on the other side of the window, no doubt now showered in glass shards.

Several of the other café customers gasped as they saw the attack, the quiet murmurs giving way to more panicked chatter. Tenya's heart pounded faster as he turned to face them. "Look, she just went out of her way to attack another store!" he called loudly. "She's likely going to attack here too! We need to evacuate to the back before she does!"

This time he got no protests, a small stampede starting towards the door leading to the kitchen. Tenya lingered as everyone else rushed to safety, watching the battle anxiously. The woman's opponents had moved to attack her again, one of them shooting an arc of electricity at her which she dodged while flinging a disc at them. The mystery figured jumped out of the way, and as they did Tenya finally got a glimpse of a "_1-A_" emblazoned across their back.

Once again he found himself freezing, realizing these must be the vigilante duo Tensei had mentioned. The duo were new to the scene on Hosu, gradually growing a small following after a handful of accomplishments. Tensei had yet to see them himself, but they'd already gotten his attention.

Okay, this was bad, this was very bad. Two vigilantes were battling a villainess known for causing reckless destruction. Vigilantes had far less training than Pro Heroes, and would thus be much less likely to prevent collateral damage. In short, this was a disaster waiting to happen.

Tenya's mouth thinned as he whipped out his phone, swiftly texting the big group chat for Team Idaten. '_URGENT! The villainess who attacked Enigma is currently fighting the 1-A Vigilantes by the restaurant! I am evacuating the customers to safety but we need someone on the scene now!_'

He'd barely hit send when he heard a loud cry outside, and he looked up only for the world to freeze. There on the other side of the street was a young child no older than a toddler. The child seemed to have been inside one of the stores the woman had attacked, the storefront behind them damaged with some of the glass and part of the wall missing. They made no move to run to safety, just standing and crying at the top of their lungs.

Their loud crying had obviously drawn the woman's attention, and she shot the child a vicious look even as the two vigilantes furiously showered her with blow after blow. Tenya's blood chilled, and he knew he couldn't stand around doing nothing.

* * *

Things had taken a bad turn, a _very_ bad turn.

Kyouka cursed as the woman dodged out of the way of Kaminari's latest attack, nearly all other sound around her drowned by the high-pitched wailing not far away. A kid, a freaking _kid_ had stumbled onto the battlefield. This fight had been hard from the start, this woman nearly taking off their limbs and heads more than once, but the stakes had just gotten even higher.

Everything had been going wrong from the moment they found this crazy woman. They'd stumbled across her after hearing shouts of alarm to find her outright attacking _civilians_, just throwing those energy discs into the scattering crowd. That alone set her apart from all the other muggers and crooks they'd fought, but the ensuing fight just cemented that difference further.

She wasn't doing this to fulfill some overarching goal, she was causing chaos for _fun_. She had zero hesitation about destroying her surroundings—no, she _enjoyed_ it. Three stop lights now lay shattered on this street after she'd sliced through the poles suspending them to try to let them land on Kyouka or Kaminari. One street over, a streetlamp had been completely bisected and had one end now lying inside a nearby store after crashing through the window.

And now, again: _there was a kid here_.

"I'm over here, bitch!" Kyouka yelled, throwing a small electro-bomb at the woman when her gaze strayed to the crying toddler. The woman dodged out of the way easily, the bomb exploding into a burst of sparks as it hit the pavement behind her, but at least she was further away from the toddler.

At the same time Kaminari rushed her from the left and threw one of his stun discs at her. She skipped out of the way while producing another disc and flinging it at him, Kaminari narrowly managing to evade the strike which instead embedded into a wall behind him.

All the while the kid never tried to run, just kept standing there _crying_. The fact no one else had come out to remove the kid yet made it pretty clear no one would, meaning they were probably on their own with that. _Great._ Kyouka ground her teeth, silently going over the gear she had on hand to try to come up with a strategy.

Most of it would be useless here; the woman's Quirk made it dangerous to engage her in close combat, and she moved too fast to hit her with their ranged stuff. The sticky bombs seemed like their best bet: it would immobilize her and then they could subdue her more easily... but that still depended on it _hitting_ her. The best idea she had was to use her Quirk on the street to crack it and throw the woman off-balance long enough to hit her with one, but she couldn't _do_ that.

As vigilantes, they couldn't risk causing too much damage or else the police might start to target them more seriously. While they wanted attention so others from Class 1-A might recognize them, this would bring the wrong kind and put them under intense scrutiny. Honestly, they shouldn't even be fighting a villain this serious, but they'd had no choice. Ignoring her would have been a literal death sentence for that crowd she'd attacked before.

This woman had the advantage over them, and she knew it.

For now, they needed to keep her away from the kid. To that end Kyouka charged forward again, earphone jacks slithering down the back of her dress to plug into her boots. She channeled her heartbeat into a sonic blast aimed at the woman. It wasn't strong enough to knock her off her feet or unbalance her; Kyouka had to keep it fairly weak to avoid potentially hurting the kid. It did make her stagger long enough for Kaminari to make a move though.

"Take THIS!" he shouted, throwing a smoke bomb at her. She yelled as it hit her right in the head, a large cloud exploding instantly and making her cough. Kyouka sorely wished they'd thought to give him some of the sticky bombs because this would have been a perfect opportunity to bean her with one, but _no_. They thought it'd be _clever_ to restrict some of the gear to one and not the other, to help confuse people about what was a Quirk and what wasn't.

At least the smoke bomb distracted her for a few seconds. Kaminari followed it up with a lightning rod, throwing it at the woman's arm while Kyouka broke into a run towards the kid. She could hear the woman shout in pain as he shot her with electricity but Kyouka didn't look over, her attention focused on the still-crying child.

She had nearly reached the kid when she heard Kaminari shout. "SHIT! POPSTAR, LOOK OUT!" Kyouka twisted her head and startled as she saw the woman had managed to yank out the lightning rod and turned her attention to her. Her face contorted in rage as she glared at Kyouka, her arm reeled back with the largest disc yet spinning above her palm. _Shit!_

"I am so sick and TIRED of you brats!" she roared, and Kyouka felt her heart drop as she threw it, the disc gliding low to the ground as it spun towards her. If it hit her, she could see it slicing right through her ankles. Every instinct screamed to _dodge_, but Kyouka's current position placed her directly between the villainous and the kid; if she dodged now, it would hit the kid instead, probably right in the stomach.

No matter what she decided, someone would get hurt.

Before she could think anything else she suddenly heard the wailing cut off behind her, and then something smacked directly into her.

She gasped as she felt an arm dig into her stomach, painfully knocking the air out of her as it shoved her back at record speeds. Her legs lifted from under her as the momentum carried her away, the world blurring only for a second before going still. When it did her head snapped to the side to see a familiar face next to her, a stern look full of determination directed towards the woman.

_Iida!?_ Even with those weird scales painted around his eyes she recognized the class rep on sight. He'd half-wrapped one arm around her middle to drag her away, and in his other arm he held the child—who turned out to be a boy now that she was close enough to see his face—who dangled quietly with a shocked look.

A loud boom had her twisting her head to see that the disc had crashed through the already damaged wall behind where the boy had been standing. Now even _more_ of it crumbled away, horizontal slots visible at each side of the hole, and her stomach lurched at the thought of what it would've done if it hit _them_ instead.

The woman looked even _more_ enraged that her attack had missed, but Kaminari didn't give her an opening to attack again. "Eyes on me, lady!" he roared, flinging himself at her with his entire body. The woman spun but didn't have time to form another energy disc before he was on her, slamming a fist surging with electricity right at her face.

The woman staggered back with a howl of pain while grasping at her nose, and Kyouka didn't hesitate at the opening. She all but yanked a sticky bomb from her pocket and hurled it right at the woman's feet. Thanks to how her hands covered her face the villainess didn't notice until it was too late, and the bomb exploded in a mess of sticky pink goo that rooted her feet to the ground.

At the same moment Kaminari surged forward, grabbing her arms with both hands and flooding her with a surge of electricity . While she screamed in pain Kyouka took the chance to nod to Iida. "Thanks," she said breathlessly. "Now get the kid out of here and _go_!"

"You should not be engaging a villainess!" Iida scolded, and she had to resist the urge to groan. Was he seriously going to lecture her _now_ of all times!?

"You are holding a _two-year-old_," she told him flatly. "Now is not the time for you to talk about this. If you want to be a hero, prioritize getting the kid to safety! Now hurry up and _go!_" He startled and looked a little chastised, but Kyouka didn't pay him any mind as she spun to face the woman. Kaminari had stopped shocking her and jumped back, thankfully seeming to still be in control of himself. The woman groaned in pain, but Kyouka could still see another disc forming in her palm as it dangled at her side.

_Nope._ Kyouka pulled out a second sticky bomb and charged with a furious shout, making the woman twist to look at her and raise the disc just as Kyouka threw it. The pink orb made contact with the disc's edge and _exploded_, pink goop flying everywhere.

Kaminari yelped as he scrambled to dodge some of it, while Kyouka cursed and jumped back as some hit her side with enough force to actually hurt. The woman took the brunt of it though, shrieking as some of smacked her right in the face and front. The disc had dissipated at the impact and her palm was now coated in a thick layer of the goop, her fingers stuck together. Her face contorted with disgust as she cursed loudly and waved her hand in an attempt to free it.

While she cursed Kaminari raced over to Kyouka "I think we can go now," he said breathlessly, and she nodded in agreement. The woman _could_ still use her free hand to make more discs, but with her rooted to one spot that'd seriously limit the damage she could do. Either way they couldn't stick around any longer; after such a big commotion Pro Heroes would be showing up any second, they needed to be gone _yesterday_.

They turned and fled without another word, racing into the nearest alley. They only got a few steps inside when a blur suddenly zoomed past them and Iida came to a halt in front of them, making them skid to a stop.

"Halt!" he ordered. "I cannot allow you to escape! Good as your intentions may be, vigilantism is still breaking the law!"

"_Seriously!?_" Kaminari half-shouted in exasperation.

"You realize fighting us counts as vigilantism, right?" Kyouka deadpanned. Iida wavered for a moment at that, his penchant for sticking to the rules getting the better of him, but then he straightened with a renewed resolve in his eyes. _Dammit._

"I am an intern of Team Idaten!" he declared, his voice booming with authority. "I am legally allowed to use my Quirk within reason in the interest of protecting myself and others!" _Double dammit._ "And besides that, you two are teenagers as well, which makes your delinquency all the more intolerable!"

"What makes you so sure about that?" Kaminari challenged, and at that very moment Kyouka wanted to face palm because only now did she realize: _he wasn't using his voice modulator_. The modulators had limited power so they couldn't constantly keep them on (that, and they also didn't fully trust they _wouldn't_ explode yet), but while Kyouka had switched hers on at the start of the fight, Kaminari never had.

In the heat of the fight Kyouka hadn't noticed it, but now it was blaringly obvious that Iida had been able to hear him the whole time. Kaminari had a slightly high-pitched voice that made it hard to mistake him for a full-grown adult. The only saving grace was that this world's Iida probably didn't know Kaminari, so he probably wouldn't be able to identify his voice, but that provided little consolation.

"Not only are you breaking the law, but your are also skipping school!" Iida continued sternly. "Truancy is absolutely unforgiveable! Do you not value your education?"

Kyouka found herself wavering at that, because he was lecturing _vigilantes_ on skipping school? Iida's priorities seemed to be weirdly skewed as usual. As she tried to think of a way out of this Kaminari spoke up. "Uh dude, you _do_ realize high school isn't, like, required, right?" he asked, and Iida faltered for a second.

"H-huh?" he sputtered.

"After you graduate middle school, you don't _have_ to go to high school," Kaminari continued casually. "Plenty of kids drop out to start working part-time jobs, or become shut-ins just because they don't feel safe going outside. You know, because of all the villain attacks?" He added the last bit somewhat pointedly, and Iida's resolve visibly faltered once more.

"I-I..."

"Don't just assume a teenager is in school," Kaminari said with a huff. "You have no idea what's going on with their lives, that's just rude and insensitive." Iida winced, looking aghast at the realization Kaminari's words spawned. He didn't have a chance to act on them more though, because at that moment Kaminari threw a smoke bomb at the ground and the alley filled with smoke.

Kyouka took off running instantly, charging through the smoke to race past him. As they did she heard a pop and Iida shouting in surprise, and Kyouka guessed Kaminari had thrown one of his expanding foam pellets at the speedster. It wouldn't stick to people like the sticky bombs, but the foam had a tendency to harden surprisingly fast once exposed to air. While it didn't become _quite_ solid, moving through it was still a pain.

It would probably only give them a few seconds' head start, but hopefully that would be enough. They both darted deeper into the alleys, taking nearly every turn they saw. Sirens now sounded not too far away, only adding to the urgency. As they ran Kyouka eyed the walls around them. "Do you know if any of the heroes stick to rooftops?" she asked.

"Don't think so, but how'll we get up there?" Kaminari asked.

"Give me a boost," Kyouka replied, and he shot her a curious look but nodded. He sprinted a bit ahead of her and spun to face her with his hands held low for her to use as a step. She hopped onto his palms and he swung them upwards, giving her a brief boost that only lifted her halfway to the rooftop. Kyouka didn't let that stop her though, pressing her middle and ring finger against her thumb on both hands before slamming her right palm against the wall.

In the pursuit of making gear to mimic Quirks, one of Hatsume's innovations had been what they had nicknamed "Gecko Mode." When her palm slapped the wall it stuck, leaving her dangling by one hand. It put a lot of strain on her arm, her muscles protesting more than she'd expected, but she managed to yank herself upwards and slap her other hand against the wall above the first.

Below her Kaminari gave a whoop of appreciation, but Kyouka couldn't return the sentiment because of what they had to do next. "Grab my legs and hold on!" she ordered reluctantly, and he jolted in surprise before scrambling to do as told.

The gloves did a great job at keeping her on the wall as he jumped and wrapped his arms around her legs, his added weight dragging her down painfully. She grimaced as her arms protested the position even more, but ignored the pain as she peeled away her lower palm with no small amount of effort in order to keep climbing.

Scaling the wall took about thirty seconds total, an awkward ordeal since she could only use her hands. Even if Kaminari hadn't been holding her legs, her boots had no adhesive function. As it stood, his weight made it way more straining on her arms. She reached the top with no small amount of relief, practically collapsing as she pulled herself over the edge of the roof.

Fortunately for her the motion pulled Kaminari even closer to the edge, and he managed to grab it and pull himself up the rest of the way. Kyouka gasped as she collapsed onto the roof, her arms more sore than they had felt in _years_. She couldn't regret her decision though, because not even thirty seconds later they heard movement from below.

Neither of them dared speak or move to look as they listened to someone run through the alley. By this point the sirens had grown louder, and they had no doubt it was a Pro Hero or police officer. Kaminari turned to look at her, silently asking _something_, but Kyouka felt too tired to try to parse what that look meant. She curled up panting in exhaustion, glaring at her too-sore arms.

Too close. This had been _way_ too close. Every aspect of this encounter had been infinitely more dangerous than all their other patrols, from the villain herself to the kid and Iida, and all the way to the response time of the Pro Heroes. Even in their own world with proper gear and support, that fight would have been tough.

But they'd done it, they'd won.

She'd love to stop and rest, but they had to move. Heroes would be searching the area for a while yet, and it wouldn't take long to go to the roof. To that end she forced herself to her feet, the pair trudging towards the stairwell in silence. When they got closer she tried the doorknob and scowled when it didn't budge. She'd rather not jump from rooftop to rooftop looking for an open stairwell.

As she glared at it Kaminari nudged her aside. "Let me try," he said, and she did just that. He grabbed the handle with one hand and pushed down on it harshly while slamming the door above it with his other palm, and with a click the handle turned. Kyouka stared dumbly as he opened the door and spun to her with an obviously proud smile. "Ta-dah!"

"...How did you know to do that?" she asked, and he froze.

"I... have no idea," he said slowly. For a second they just stood there, but then she sighed and trudged inside, Kaminari following in silence. They descended the stairs quietly, wary of witnesses as they silently tried to figure out what to do. As they reached the landing with a door to the third floor Kyouka plugged her earphone jack into the wall next to it. No one seemed to be in the hallway, so she opened it a crack and peeked out.

She froze, not believing her eyes. "...Kaminari," she said slowly. "Look." He shot her a curious look but peered out, and then _he_ froze too, because that hall?

It was Kaminari's apartment building.

They both stared dumbly, trying to process the sight. Kaminari's apartment was on the second floor, but the layout of this hallway was identical down to the color of the walls. For a moment neither of them moved, just _staring_.

"...You know," she finally said, her voice sounding weirdly faint even to her own ears, "You're exactly the kind of guy who'd hang out on a roof."

"I am, aren't I," Kaminari said softly. Neither of them really knew what else to say, so they just descended to the second floor and went to his apartment.

* * *

**Giant battle scene! It was fun to write. Less fun: coming up with the title. Why did I decide to title each chapter, why.**

**Also anyone who wanted Iida—here you go! In this world Iida is basically an intern so he does have limited permission to use his Quirk to protect others. The idea of some students dropping out of school is totally alien to him.  
**

**Question for next time: What are the worst alternative names you can think of for Quirks that still describe them? (E.g. "Alien Sweat" for Ashido/Acid, "Boom-Boom Hands" for Bakugou/Explosion, etc.)**


	43. Chapter 43: Cats and Birds

Chapter 43

.::Cats and Birds::.

Hitoshi would be lying if he claimed he'd never felt more uncomfortable than he did right now, but in the moment he found it pretty hard to believe that.

That evening had started normal enough. After dinner (which was always a stressful affair for him), Midoriya came by with Bakugou to talk strategy. Just to be safe they'd loaded up Mario Kart and took turns playing it while discussing their plans. Since they only had two controllers Hitoshi ended up letting them play for the most part, seeing as the damn muzzle kept him from communicating while holding the controller. It kind of spoiled the mood for him, reminding him even more of his predicament.

Still, playing it turned to be a good idea in the end because during the third round _Shigaraki fucking Tomura_ had suddenly entered the room. Apparently he'd gotten curious about them playing Mario Kart so much and wanted to check it out. And then the villain had _joined_ them, even going out of his way to retrieve two more controllers so all four of them could play.

Which brought them to the present.

"Tch, stupid banana peels," Shigaraki grumbled, glaring at the TV screen with a look of intense concentration as his racer swerved around a peel. Hitoshi felt his heart _pounding_ as his own racer trailed not far behind, shooting Midoriya a look of '_why the _actual fuck_ would you _use_ that!?_' behind the villain's back. Did he _really_ want to risk pissing Shigaraki off!? To his credit the green-haired boy looked sheepish at the look, and mouthed a silent "_sorry_" but it did little to assuage Hitoshi's frayed nerves.

Never had Hitoshi felt so tense playing a game. Not because he wanted to win, but because he _really_ didn't want to piss off the villain by doing so. He had no idea what could trigger Shigaraki, and judging by how rigid Bakugou looked he felt the same. Their competitive streak had taken a backseat, each now more focused on not pissing off Shigaraki.

The only one who looked remotely comfortable was Midoriya, and even then he still shot them guilty looks since he'd been the one who (_very_ enthusiastically) agreed to Shigaraki joining them. Those guilty looks did little to assuage Hitoshi's bad mood.

To be fair, Hitoshi knew that Midoriya had no reason to protest. As far as Shigaraki was concerned they were brothers and had a really good bond, and Midoriya needed to keep up that image no matter how he might feel. The green-haired boy had plastered on a big smile as he exclaimed how fun it would be to play with "Tomu-nii _and_ my friends" at the offer, and then briefly hyperventilated after Shigaraki left to retrieve the controllers.

Honestly, it was a miracle Shigaraki hadn't picked up on anyone else's tension. Sitting so close to the man brought back memories of that first day when Hitoshi woke up here, of the panic at realizing he couldn't move his jaw. His grip tightened on the controller as he shoved away the memory, trying to ignore the now-familiar feeling of metal against his face.

The race ended with Midoriya snagging first place. Even he looked shocked by this development, considering he tended to finish closer to last. "_How?_" he whispered, sounding genuinely confounded. Shigaraki just snorted, lips pulling into an ugly scowl as he started to reach for his neck with his good hand before stopping himself.

"It's because those two are holding back," he grumbled, and Hitoshi tensed. Shit, he _did_ notice, and it clearly pissed him off. He held his breath, but Shigaraki didn't bother even looking at him as he spoke. "Screw it, let's play a different game."

"We only have Mario Kart in here though," Midoriya said feebly, and Shigaraki got up with a grunt.

"Then I'll get some others. Wait here." He didn't wait for a response before leaving, and as soon as the door closed all three teens slumped in their seats.

"_Shit_, being so close to that fucker is hell for my nerves," Bakugou grumbled, and Hitoshi had to agree.

"I'm so sorry guys," Midoriya said, but they knew he couldn't do anything. None of them had predicted Shigaraki would want to play with them, but then again, the villain probably wanted to bond with Midoriya some more. They should have realized it was a possibility and planned for it.

Had he not been so on edge, Hitoshi might have suggested using this to their advantage and try to get on the villain's good side. Getting his trust would only help them in the long run. As it stood though, he was busy enough just trying not to have a panic attack. He hated this mess, he just wanted to go home and never worry about this ever again.

The door opened and the villain returned with more games. "Alright, I got Meteor Mine, Lunaris Dream, Peek-a-Boo and Neko Café Manager. Which one do you want to play?" The selection got some odd looks from the teens. Hitoshi had heard of them, and they didn't seem like Shigaraki's taste at _all_. Meteor Mine was about mining in space, Lunaris Dream was some sort of multiplayer puzzle platform game, Peek-a-Boo had you playing as ghosts spooking people, and Neko Café Manager was, well, managing a café manned by cats.

The others seemed to agree, and Midoriya voiced the question on everyone's minds. "Why those?"

"Because your party is too wimpy to actually try in PVP, and these games have us work together," Shigaraki replied testily, and _ah_. He'd been annoyed by them holding back, so he found a compromise that would let them play without playing against each other. Hitoshi felt a bit sheepish, but honestly relieved. Working together would be _much_ better for his nerves.

A few rounds of Neko Café Manager later, he retracted his thought.

"Deku, hurry up and fill that coffee already!" Bakugou yelled in frustration.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Midoriya responded, and then yelped, "Tomura, the cake!"

"_Shit!_" Shigaraki hissed, his avatar rushing back to the oven where the cake burned. Meanwhile Hitoshi just focused intently on prepping all the cookie ingredients currently on the counter before whisking it away to another counter to shove in another oven and send it out. He had to maneuver around Bakugou's character on the return, the blond cursing as they spent precious seconds getting around each other.

Tension had risen in the room once more for entirely different reasons now, everyone focused on trying to keep up with the demand. The game had them not only preparing food but also tending to customers before they got annoyed and left, making for a hectic pace. When the time ran out all of them quietly sighed and let themselves relax. For a game about running a café staffed by cute cats, it turned out to be more difficult than Hitoshi had expected.

That just made the three stars that appeared on the screen all the more satisfying.

"Damn _right_ we got three stars," Bakugou said with a vicious grin. "We're fucking awesome!"

"Let's see if we can keep up the streak for next round," Shigaraki said, and all of them nodded and picked up their controllers as he selected the next level. Midoriya hummed when the preview image showed the inside of a boat on water with colorful lanterns lining the tables.

"Oh, looks like we're on a boat this time!" he said. "That's neat!"

Hitoshi _swore_ he felt a sudden pang of dread at those words, a cold chill of foreboding prickling down his spine as the level loaded. It only grew as the water grew darker and less calm, all of them growing more serious and focused as they noted the change.

Soon enough that dread proved well-founded, as a sudden flash of lightning had rain pouring over the level. "Is the furniture SLIDING!?" Midoriya yelped. Hitoshi made a muffled sound of annoyance as the trashcan in the kitchen started sliding away, forcing him to chase after it to dump a plate. It seemed everything but the kitchen counters, dining tables and occupied chairs were liable to move.

"DAMMIT, THE CUSTOMERS ARE LEAVING FASTER!" Bakugou yelled as one of the customers got up and left, the timers above their heads running down quicker than before. He cursed even more when in the few seconds he spent moving around an empty chair that slid away from its table, the oven he'd been rushing towards started burning.

The chaotic scramble only grew from there, more and more ovens catching fire as they scrambled to navigate around the shifting furniture and talk to customers before the rain made them leave. Halfway through the level the storm died down and the kitchen and dining area no longer had shifting furniture, which was probably the only reason they didn't all succumb to the stress. The customers' timers didn't return to normal though, keeping the sense of urgency present.

When the round finally ended they all slumped in their seats with exhausted groans. Then they all glared and shouted when only two stars showed up on the screen.

"Oh, _come on_!" Shigaraki growled. "We totally should've had three stars!"

"We _did_ let a lot of stuff burn," Midoriya pointed out meekly. "And also missed a few orders after the storm started..." Shigaraki scowled and grumbled under his breath.

"We're doing a redo," he ordered, and they all nodded, sitting up straighter and focusing on the screen with renewed determination. This time they managed to navigate the level better since they knew what to expect, and the three stars at the end gave them all a surge of satisfaction. From that point on, keeping those three stars proved harder and harder though, and they had to replay some levels a few times to finally get it.

Eventually, during their fourth time replaying a level that involved dodging _lava_ (don't ask) the door suddenly opened, startling them all. "Dammit!" Shigaraki hissed as a pot caught on fire, while Hitoshi twisted to see... _was that guy made of mist?_

"I apologize for the interruption, but it is almost curfew," the stranger intoned flatly. "It is time for Bakugou to return to his room." Shigaraki growled in irritation, while Midoriya just looked surprised.

"Already?" he asked, and frowned as he glanced back at the screen. "I guess we all lost track of time from playing, it's not like there's a clock in here, so..." He trailed off as they watched the timer run out on the level.

"Shit," Shigaraki muttered as a single star appeared, but Hitoshi barely paid any attention. He was more focused on the furry black bundle in the misty guy's arms, slowly reaching for his phone and opening the text-to-speech app.

"_Is that a cat?_" the electronic voice asked, getting everyone's attention. Midoriya perked up as he belatedly noticed the bundle of fur held by the newcomer.

"It is," Mist Guy confirmed, and gave what Hitoshi thought was a pointed look at Shigaraki.

"Oh, right," he muttered, reaching for his neck with his good hand before flinching and quickly lowering it. "Forgot about that."

"Forgot about what?" Midoriya asked, and the villain grunted as he got up, walking over to stand by the other man.

"Kurogiri says that humans aren't _actually_ pets and that might be '_traumatic,_'" he rolled his eyes, "so he suggested we get you a cat." He gestured to the feline who poked its head up with a soft _mew_, and Hitoshi was officially in love.

"Oh, I... see?" Midoriya sounded faintly confused, but then quickly offered the mist guy—Kurogiri, and how did Hitoshi _not_ figure that out?—a smile as he walked over to take the cat. "Thanks, Kurogiri." He returned to the bed and sat next to Hitoshi, allowing him to see the cat up close. It looked a little older than a newborn kitten but not quite full grown yet, mostly black with some white on the toes almost like little socks and bright blue eyes.

Yep, Hitoshi loved this cat.

He reached out to scratch its chin, the feline accepting the touch easily. Even Blasty seemed to like the cat too; at the very least, he wasn't _scowling_ at it. He had a weirdly _soft_ frown, if you could call it that, as he half-glared at the cat. "What should we name it?" Midoriya asked.

"Her name is Sushi," Kurogiri interjected, and they all paused.

"What kind of name is Sushi?" Bakugou questioned incredulously. Kurogiri didn't bother responding to the question.

"Since Shigaraki forgot to tell you," he said instead, shooting another pointed look at the villain, "we'll delay curfew another few minutes so you can get acquainted with Sushi."

"Hah, the games were more interesting," Shigaraki muttered dismissively. "You guys aren't bad, for casuals." Midoriya had to all but throw Sushi into Hitoshi's lap so he could grab Bakugou before the blond could launch at him. Luckily the villain either didn't notice the attempted attack or didn't care, not bothering to look back as he headed to the door. "Later." Hitoshi nodded absently, attention focused on the purring feline in his lap, while Midoriya watched for a moment before releasing his grip on Bakugou's arms and standing up.

"Hey, Tomura-nii?" he called hesitantly, and the villain paused, turning to eye him questioningly. Hitoshi would have frozen under that stare, finding the man's gaze unnerving even if he wasn't actively glaring or trying to be menacing. Midoriya had none of that fear though, just calmly meeting the older male's gaze as he asked, "Um, c-can Hijack maybe be allowed to leave his room?"

Hitoshi was so busy petting Sushi and marveling at Midoriya's ability to maintain his cool that it took a second for the question to register, and once it did he did an actual double-take. His head swiveled to look back at the villain, freezing when he found narrow red eyes focused at _him_. He felt like a deer in the headlights, only able to stare back wide-eyed until Shigaraki _finally_ turned back to Midoriya.

"Why?" he asked shortly, and Midoriya started to fidget nervously.

"W-well, it's just, we're just getting along really well now, right? We're really becoming friends. But, this room is so—so _small_. And, and it's not fair that he's stuck in here while Kacchan and I can walk around whenever we want. So I thought maybe he could be allowed to walk around too, y'know. And I don't expect you to agree to let us wander around unsupervised!" he added hastily. "I figure we could have the same rules as Kacchan, and... leave the muzzle," he finished lamely.

The last part made Hitoshi almost wince, all-too-aware of the metal pressing against his face. Even so he still turned back to Shigaraki though, waiting for his response eagerly. The villain continued to eye Izuku silently, his expression impossible to read, but finally, after what felt like _hours_, he nodded.

"Fine," he said simply, and Hitoshi felt his breath leave all at once.

_What? _Did he just... _agree?_

"He can't leave without an adult though," Shigaraki continued gruffly. "And _no_, Toga does not count. He's got the same curfew as the explosive brat, but you can't let him _anywhere_ near your phone or laptop. Got it?"

"Got it!" Midoriya agreed with a bob of his head, a bright smile breaking across his face. "Thank you so much, Tomu-nii!" Shigaraki just grunted as he turned and left, not bothering to say good bye to Hitoshi or Bakugou. The misty guy moved aside to let him out and followed him, leaving the other two teens to linger a few moments more in privacy along with Sushi.

Once they left Midoriya let his smile fall and his shoulders slumped tiredly. "Sorry you both had to deal with that," he apologized quietly. "I know you guys don't want to spend any time around him..." _That_ was the understatement of the century, but Hitoshi just settled for a half-hearted shrug.

"It's fine, not like you could tell him to buzz off," Bakugou muttered, and paused before adding, "That was... fun." He looked like he had to force himself to admit the words, his face screwing up in irritation at it. Had Hitoshi not been muzzled, he probably would have made some smart-ass comment like, "_Aw, so you _do_ like us._"

As it stood though, he still felt mildly shocked by how the evening had actually ended. He just _stared_ at Midoriya, wishing he could say something but not knowing _what_. The green-haired boy met his gaze and smiled feebly. "Uh, well, at least we got him to agree to letting you out, right?"

Even if he hadn't been muzzled Hitoshi doubted he'd know what to say, for now he could only nod in agreement. He could leave. Starting tomorrow, he could finally leave this room, finally explore the base. He wasn't _free_, he couldn't go outside and he'd have to be shadowed by villains, and he still had the damn muzzle, but—

He was one step closer to freedom.

Sushi released a plaintive meow, reminding them she existed. Hitoshi resumed scratching behind her ears, getting a content purr in response. Contentment flowed through him at the cat's pleasure, feeling some of the tension fade from his shoulders. For his part Midoriya smiled, looking a little relieved and happy as he watched them.

"And now we got a cat," he added, and there was a brief pause as the gravity of the situation settled over them. They now had a cat. _Another_ living being completely dependent on them for survival in this hellhole full of villains and other evil people.

"...We're gonna have to smuggle it out too, aren't we?" Bakugou asked flatly.

"Yep," Midoriya said with a sigh. "At least it'll be easier than breaking out Eraserhead... We can probably just carry Sushi inside a bag or something."

"Are we gonna keep calling it that stupid name?"

"I mean, I don't have any better ideas. Hijack?" Midoriya glanced at him but Hitoshi just shrugged, attention fully focused on Sushi again. He had spent _years_ wanting to name a cat and had a full list of options, but now that he actually had one he was totally content to just go with whatever.

That, and he'd rather not upset Kurogiri. The man seemed calm, he'd rather not risk finding out what he was like if he had a temper.

"...Tch, whatever," Bakugou scoffed. "I don't care anyway. Keep the dumb name or whatever. But just a heads up, that Magician Reject is probably going to insist on giving us a tour again. Just be ready for it." Hitoshi perked to attention and nodded more seriously now. He didn't know which villain was the "Magician Reject" but he remembered they specifically mentioned some guy named "Mr. Compress" had led the tour so he assumed that was him.

It occurred to him that despite Midoriya filling them in on the Alliance's members and their Quirks, he still had no idea what each one looked like. He hadn't seen any villains besides Shigaraki, Toga and a handful of thugs whom he'd rather not think about. Everyone in this place was an unfamiliar stranger—no, more than that, they were all _threats_.

As of tomorrow, he'd be walking straight into enemy territory. He had no idea how they would react to a vigilante walking around, even if he had another villain shadowing him. The thought filled him with a pang of dread, but at the same time he'd be able to _leave this fucking cell_. That alone was enough to make him overcome his anxiety.

Still, the realization was sobering, and he pulled Sushi a little closer while Midoriya began mumbling to himself. "Well, this is a big step at least. I guess the next step will be to convince them to let you guys visit Eraserhead with me...? They _might_ be against it since they still don't trust either of you much, but at the same time Eraserhead obviously can't do anything, so they might let it slide... And if you guys are part of my 'party' it'd only make sense I'd want to let you see my... my _pet_, I guess, even if I hate using that term..."

Hitoshi lost track of the quiet rambling, attention instead drawn to Bakugou who quietly growled in irritation. "We'll figure out more details later," he muttered lowly, and Hitoshi nodded back before the blond turned to Midoriya. "_Oi, Deku!_ Save the mumbling for later! We need to go before the misty fucker gets tired of waiting and barges back in!"

His sharp rebuke served to snap Midoriya out of his trance-like state, startling back into reality as he glanced at the door. "O-oh, right... Yeah, you're right. Kurogiri's probably waiting for us to take you back to your cell. I guess we'll see you tomorrow, Hijack," he added, turning back to Hitoshi. "Oh, do you want us to leave Sushi?"

Hitoshi didn't feel like picking up a whiteboard or using the phone to respond, so he silently settled for a nod, waving with the hand not currently stroking Sushi. Midoriya gave him a meek, half-hearted smile as he returned it with a nod of his own, letting it fade as he headed to the door while quietly muttering to himself once more. Hitoshi didn't bother trying to listen this time, instead turning to Bakugou who had looked his way while following the green-haired boy.

"See you tomorrow," he said with a nod, and Hitoshi nodded back. It was a brisk sort of farewell, but coming from the temperamental blond it was pretty nice considering he didn't use any nicknames this time. The door closed behind them and Hitoshi heard the familiar click of the lock, at which point he flopped onto his back with a sigh.

...He hated this.

He hated being stuck here.

He hated having no say in his future, no choice in his meals or where he could go or what he could _do_. He hated having only a couple of random books and a pilfered Switch to keep himself occupied, hated that this room had become his entire _world_, that he couldn't do anything but sit around and wait for Midoriya to finally visit. He hated that he couldn't get himself out of this situation, that it had taken Midoriya to finally get him out of this tiny cell, and that he _still_ needed to wait for Midoriya to save him.

The only remotely decent thing to come out of this mess was that he now had a cat, but even that was a small consolation. The cat belonged to Midoriya, not him, and even if it _did_ belong to him it could be used against him. Not by Midoriya—he'd been around the other boy long enough to realize he didn't have a single malicious bone in his body—but these people were called the _Villain_ Alliance for a reason.

Hitoshi wouldn't go as far to say he wanted to go _home_, only because he hadn't had a place he could call "home" in years. He'd been living on the streets constantly on the move since middle school, never staying in one place for long enough to get comfortable.

But he had some cities he liked, some that had become familiar even as he kept moving from building to building. Cities where he had earned trust from strangers as he saved them time and time again, where he'd found people he could _trust_. People he'd come to view as friends, as _family_, who had proven themselves trustworthy time and time again, and supported his drive to do _good_ even if he couldn't go to school to become a Pro Hero anymore.

He wanted to get out, find them, and then _get the hell away from here_. He would happily give up his life as a vigilante if it meant never having to wear this damn muzzle ever again.

_He never should have come back to Nabu._

* * *

Right now, Dabi felt grateful he could not will fire into existence just by looking at things. He felt grateful because if he could, his phone would be nothing but a pile of ash, and probably take his hand with it considering the device was currently in his palm.

Once again, Shouto rejected his call.

Dabi had mostly stopped trying to call the damn brat because at this point he didn't expect it to change, but it still pissed him off. He was this close to sending a text message demanding he say _something_ to at least confirm he was alive, but leaving a written trail like that would be too risky. Call him paranoid, but he'd learned that paranoia saved lives in this messed-up world.

On top of that, he now had a _second_ brat to worry about. The girl he'd met on Friday had _finally_ texted him to let him know she'd made it to Nabu safely. And he was damn glad about it. He'd been about to make some calls to get someone to make sure she hadn't gotten herself killed when the text arrived, sparing him from a guaranteed headache. He'd prefer to have _heard_ her, but he doubted villains would bother texting a random number claiming to be her.

(Also, he'd finally realized he _did_ know the name Midoriya Izuku. It had been years since he'd heard it, but if that girl said she was now staying with his sister... She was safe. Kinda. Probably.)

(...Eh, as long as she didn't stray into a lab or try to _hurt_ the other kid, Aiko wouldn't kill her and that was good enough.)

So now, that left just one issue: Shouto.

His lips curled into a scowl at the thought. He _knew_ the kid wouldn't answer his phone any time soon, and he still had no leads on where to find the damn brat. At this point, Dabi had to admit defeat. Searching for him on his own wasn't working, it was time to call in help. Dabi had three people he absolutely trusted, and all of whom he'd rather not call for varying reasons.

If he had any choice, he'd just avoid them entirely, but he'd exhausted all other options. He'd already taken the plunge and called one, which was why he currently sat on a box on the rooftop of a warehouse on an old wharf at ten at night. Believe him, he didn't _want_ to be sitting next to the ocean was it was below freezing; the cold breeze coming over the water only made him even more irritated.

As he glowered at his phone he heard the familiar beat of wings behind him. He didn't bother turning around, just pocketed his phone with an annoyed grumble. "You're late," he said testily in lieu of a greeting.

"Sorry, it's hard for me to move around without _someone_ noticing me," came the smooth reply behind him. "I can't exactly take off my wings or put on a disguise or anything." Dabi turned to glare at the bastard, conveying his irritation and apathy.

Hawks definitely stood out even outside his costume thanks to his bright red wings. At the moment he wore mostly casual clothes, hands shoved in his pockets as he strolled over to sit on another box net to him. If Dabi's glare bothered him he didn't let it show, just nodding at him with a lazy-looking smile. "Sorry it took so long to meet up, you know how busy it gets."

"Yeah, yeah," Dabi muttered, rolling his eyes as he turned back to face the ocean. He had actually called the blond on Sunday, but thanks to his busy schedule it had been a pain in the ass to actually get time to meet. Dabi might have all the free time in the world, but Hawks's hero work gave him the opposite problem. "Guessing things're finally picking up for you then, huh."

"A bit," Hawks chuckled, his smile taking on a wry edge. "The time off's been nice, but won't lie, it's been pretty rough sometimes. Letting Endeavor's youngest son disappear under your watch tends to tank people's trust in you. I do not appreciate all the extra scrutiny."

Dabi just grunted, unsympathetic . "You didn't have to go along with it," he pointed out mildly.

"Yeah, well, it worked out in the end," Hawks responded with an easy shrug. "Thanks to the reputation hit it'll make it easier for me to convince the Alliance I'm legit about wanting to join—which, by the way, I'm still waiting on that contact info from you," he added with a sly glance. When Dabi just rolled his eyes he shrugged and continued, "And besides, you're not a bad guy. The kid's safe and sound, and that's all that matters."

"...Yeah, about that," Dabi said, and Hawks froze, slowly turning to stare at him.

"...Dabi. What happened."

"Honestly, I have no fucking idea," he groaned, face twisting into a scowl as he glared at the ocean. "One morning I wake up, and the kid just ices me over and _runs_. Haven't heard a word from him since." Hawks just continued to stare, head slowly tilting to the side.

"And why would he do that? Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"I don't _know_!" Dabi nearly threw up up his arms in exasperation. "I wasn't even awake for a full minute. I said literally _two words_, just a basic 'good morning' and then _bam_. Trapped in a miniature glacier and the brat's already making a beeline for the door." He shook his head, turning to face Hawks with a heavy frown. "And that was _three weeks ago_." The hero's eyes widened, recognizing the urgency of the situation.

To his credit Hawks recovered from his shock quickly, sliding into a more professional demeanor fitting of a Pro Hero. "Are you sure he hasn't been kidnapped or influenced by a villain?"

"Two things. One, he still has his phone. He won't _answer it_," Dabi added through gritted teeth, "but sometimes it's on, and sometimes I just go straight to voice mail. Sometimes he even _rejects_ the call. Kidnappers would just ditch it entirely, so I'm betting it's him being an idiot. And two, he can make a _fucking glacier by stomping his foot_." He stated it in the most deadpan tone possible for emphasis. "Can you really see _anyone_ kidnapping him?"

"...Okay, point," Hawks conceded with a nod. "It _would_ be pretty hard to restrain him without him making a scene. My wings _still_ feel cold sometimes when I think about the escape," he muttered under his breath with a small grimace. Given Dabi's scars still felt sore sometimes after the rudest wakeup call in history, he could relate. Another reason to smack his bratty brother for being an idiot when he finally found him.

"Besides, if he did get captured by a villain, word would've spread through the underworld by now," he continued casually. "And that contact of mine you _oh so desperately_ want to meet would call me the second they heard about him. Actually, strike that," he corrected himself. "They'd call me asking if I wanted them to slaughter everyone responsible, and if I wanted to come along."

"...Okay, I am starting to feel very concerned about this contact," Hawks said after a few moments, and in other circumstances Dabi might have laughed. As it stood he just chuckled and shook his head with an almost vicious smirk.

"Trust me, you don't know the _half_ of it. I have no idea what kind of childhood they had, but whatever happened left them screwed up in the weirdest ways possible. Wouldn't call them a psychopath or flat-out evil, but they're definitely missing a screw when it comes to basic morality, and it's only gotten worse. The only reason I keep in touch with them is because we knew each other way back before everything went to shit and I _know_ they like me. They're definitely someone you'd prefer as an ally than an enemy."

There was a reason Dabi had decided to call Hawks for help instead of the other two. Though he knew they would only want to help and protect Shouto, he knew from experience that some people took more extreme measures than others. While he would _definitely_ want to hurt anyone who dared lay a hand on his baby brother, he'd also prefer to avoid traumatizing him with the knowledge that a bunch of people died gruesome and excruciatingly painful deaths for doing so.

And while only _one_ of those two people would actually go on a bloody rampage, they were close enough that she'd inevitably hear about it anyway.

(Seriously, he pitied ANYONE who got on Aiko's bad side.)

For now he just shoved the thought away. "Look, either way it doesn't matter. Shouto's out there, and there's definitely _something_ going on because there's no reason for him to attack me like that. And I'm not saying that to try to deflect guilt or responsibility or anything like that," he added with a pointed look. "I've been wracking my brain for the past three weeks trying to figure out what the hell could have set him off, and I've got _nothing_. I have no idea what the hell set him off or why he's avoiding me now."

Hawks listened with a grim look, his eyes narrow and calculating as he shook his head. "No, I get it, something's definitely weird here. I may not know your guys' dynamic that well, but to run off completely alone and not contact you for three weeks—he knows how dangerous that is, even if you guys _were_ fighting. So you don't have to convince me of anything. I'll be pretty busy, but I can at least keep an ear out for rumors about him inside the Pro community. See if I can divert them if I can."

"That's exactly what I hoped for," Dabi said with a sigh, feeling some of the weight lift from his shoulders. He already had a line to the underworld, but having someone to help with the hero side would be even better. If the Pros found Shouto, no _way_ they'd let him escape again.

"The timing is weird though," Hawks mused to himself, and the remark made Dabi pause, his eyes narrowing.

"What're you talking about?" he asked, and Hawks hummed as he pulled out his phone.

"Over the last couple of weeks some kids have run away. I know that's getting more and more common, but today two of them ran away while under _hero watch_. There was a big distraction and everything, and they don't know _why_. It's getting folks worked up." As he spoke he passed the phone to Dabi, the screen displaying two teenagers: a girl with pink skin and hair, and a plainer looking boy with black hair and red eyes.

"They look like they're Shouto's age," he commented idly. He didn't feel any real emotion towards them, he'd never seen either of them before.

"It gets weirder," Hawks said, making Dabi glance at him curiously. "I'm pretty tight with another hero at the agency that was supposed to be watching them, and he told me the girl was apparently in contact with _another_ girl who ran away last week. Similar story: zero motive we can figure out, no warning signs that she might want to leave, clearly premeditated with all the effort... There's been a pretty frantic hunt since her family's pretty rich, we're worried villains might hold her for ransom. If you swipe left there should be a picture of her."

Dabi nodded absently as he slid his finger across the screen, only to freeze when a very familiar face stared up at him. Brat number two looked almost unrecognizable with her natural brown hair and lack of disguise, but those eyes and blush marks made it impossible to mistake her for someone else.

His lips curled back in a frown, his eyes narrowing. "Yeah, there's _something_ up alright," he muttered under his breath. Call him paranoid, but he felt like there might be something bigger going on than either of them realized.

* * *

**Enter: Hawks! Everyone's been wondering about him, and here he is! ******Also, I was going to keep Dabi's contact vague, but _screw it_. I'm just confirming it now: Dabi and Aiko know each other.****

**For those wondering, Neko Café Manager is a parody of Overcooked 2. I originally had that, but then I realized that after 200 years there will be other games, so you get this instead! (The level here is based on one of the sky levels.) ****Sushi the cat was a very last-minute addition. It started as a joke on Discord that I'd add a dog just to prove I wouldn't kill it off, but in MHA cats feel much more fitting. Then when I needed a name, I realized... Sushi.  
**

**This brings up an important question: there is a certain MAJOR spoiler involving Kurogiri's past that I want to address in this story. Manga readers and Vigilantes fans know what I'm talking about, and chances are if you follow a certain ship you've already heard about this due to all the fan fics and fan art involving it.  
**

**But for anime-only fans, would you be okay with me spoiling this MAJOR detail about Kurogiri's past?**


	44. Chapter 44: Montage Thursday

Chapter 44

.::Montage Thursday::.

When trapped in another dimension, one would expect every day to be fraught with tension and anxiety as one tried to figure out what the hell happened and how to get home.

After experiencing multiverse theory firsthand though, the students of Class 1-A could firmly debunk this.

"Yeesh, we only just got back to patrolling and we're already taking a day off," Denki muttered as he sprawled on his couch with his phone. He had no one around to listen to his quiet complaints, Jirou currently taking a shower in the bathroom. Had she been around to hear him she probably would have told him off, talk about how they needed to keep a low profile today, but... she wasn't here, so he could just ruminate to himself all he wanted.

Their encounter with that villain yesterday had been splashed all over the local news sites, and even a couple national ones. While they'd been steadily growing their reputation before, that fight had made their name skyrocket into mainstream awareness. Apparently Team Idaten had been trying to catch that woman for a while, so the fact that two vigilantes had taken her down had naturally caused a pretty big uproar.

Though he felt more than ready to go fight again, he knew they needed to tone down their appearances for a couple days. They'd made more than enough of a splash for their purposes, not to mention they'd been seen by Iida. None of the articles mentioned Iida beyond "a heroic bystander that rushed in to rescue the young child" but even that made him remember their final encounter with their class representative while fleeing.

_Did_ Iida know him in this world? Would he recognize Denki's voice without the modifier? Whether he did or not, he at least knew that Denki was a teenager, which he would undoubtedly pass on to the _actual_ Pros at Team Idaten. Would it be enough to make the connection? Would the fake alibi they'd so carefully crafted be enough to divert Pros from recognizing him? He didn't know.

He startled when the bathroom door opened, Jirou stepping out in a long t-shirt and shorts with a towel around her shoulders. She had her phone in hand, lazily tapping at the screen as she walked over to the armchair. "Yo, Taser, you check out this article yet?" she asked as she plopped down, and he frowned as his phone buzzed with a text from her containing a link.

"No, haven't seen that one," he said even as he opened it. When it loaded, it... didn't seem all that impressive, honestly. It was some smaller local news site he'd already seen, just a different article about the incident. He started scrolling the page haphazardly but didn't see anything noteworthy, and was about to exit out when he noticed a picture that made him freeze.

Dead-center was a photo of an EMT next to an ambulance not far from the battle, and what was very obviously a young child sitting on a gurney. The child's face had been blacked out for safety reasons, but Denki recognized the red coat as the toddler they'd seen yesterday. He turned his attention to the actual text with renewed focus, his heart pounding as he read.

Most of it he already knew from other articles. Near the height of the fight the kid had accidentally ended up near the battle thanks to something to do with their Quirk, and had to be saved by a brave bystander. Unlike all the other ones though, this article went into further detail about what happened _during_ the fight.

"_The child's mother had also been injured in the initial attack but was conscious, and had been helpless to do anything but watch. 'Those people risked their lives to get that villain away from my baby,' she said. 'Near the very end, when that woman sent that disc at my baby, one of them was standing right in front of him. If they had tried to dodge it would've killed him, but they didn't move an inch. They were ready to take that on and risk getting their legs cut off, just to protect him._

_ "'__I don't know who they are,' she said while holding her child, 'but those two are our heroes.'_"

As he read it he felt a swell of warmth, not even noticing the smile that had settled over his face. _Those two are our heroes._ The words seemed to echo in his _soul_, filling him with a surge of contentment and pride.

This. _This_ was why he couldn't regret being a vigilante and risking their lives in this crazy world, even if they didn't know if anyone else was actually here to see it.

"We did good," he said quietly, and Jirou hummed in agreement.

* * *

Despite her best efforts, Momo found it hard to concentrate in class today as Akino-sensei droned on about weather patterns. Usually she enjoyed his classes, finding his laidback attitude refreshing compared to previous science teachers, but today she just couldn't focus. Her eyes kept straying to the empty desks dotted around the classroom, a familiar sight by now but the room feeling just a bit emptier.

Today everyone had been only able to talk about the big battle between the 1-A Vigilantes and the villainess from yesterday. Momo could only imagine their reactions if they found out the "heroic bystander" listed in so many articles was actually Iida. She herself only knew because he had called her yesterday after school to recount his encounter with the 1-A Vigilantes.

Listening to his account had been simply horrifying. She still got chills as she remembered when he described dashing out to save that child and shoved the vigilante out of the way. How _close_ that energy disc had come to hitting him, only managing to dodge it by the barest of margins. His pants had a rip in the leg, the fabric only just loose enough to leave space between it and his skin while he'd been in motion. _That's_ how close he had come to getting hit.

She couldn't imagine the courage it had taken. Though both of them had been given a chance to be groomed into heroes early on, she hadn't been able to take the final plunge into full training after middle school. The pressure and risk had just been too much, too heavy for her to make the full decision. She hadn't abandoned her childhood dreams completely yet, still kept up some training, but the thought of charging into danger headfirst made her stomach churn anxiously.

But more than that though, she couldn't stop thinking of the one Iida had heard.

A teenage boy. "Taser Brain" was a teenage boy, his voice's pitch on the higher end of the spectrum from what Iida said. Her eyes flitted to the newest desk to be occupied by only a nametag, mouth thinning as Kaminari Denki's face flashed through her mind. Though no one knew Taser Brain's Quirk for _sure_, he seemed to have a proclivity to electricity-based attacks. And everyone knew Kaminari had one.

Word had already spread that he'd been saved by the 1-A Vigilantes just that very Tuesday. One of their classmates had a parent working for the police, and had been more than eager to pass on this tidbit of information. Apparently there was evidence of them together in the form of security footage, eliminating any doubts that Kaminari might be one of them, but Momo still couldn't help but wonder _what if_.

Up until now, Momo hadn't really paid much attention to the rumors about the vigilante duo. She had other things to worry about, but after what happened yesterday the few photos of them had been plastered all over the news. It had been the first time she had actually seen them, the first time she paid attention, and the other one—the one who still hadn't been named, the female—her costume...

_It made her think of Kyouka._

It felt _crazy_, but the more she stared at it, the more it felt like something Kyouka would wear. Momo and Kyouka had been friends for a few years now, and of course they'd both talked about what they would do if they ever became Pro Heroes. Kyouka had never gone as far as to draw up a costume design, but she'd talked about her ideas a couple times.

"_Something punk-rock,_" she'd said. "_Not too flashy, no skin-tight suits or high heels or anything like that. Maybe just a leather jacket, and obviously headphones for ear protection. I'd need a speaker somewhere to plug my earphone jacks and blast my heartbeat, too, but I don't want it to be too clunky or anything. Maybe on the boots._"

The boots.

That had been all Momo could think about when she looked at the photos of the unnamed vigilante, her gaze trained on those chunky-looking boots. No one knew her Quirk just yet, she seemed to have a bit more variety than Taser Brain, but she seemed to have a preference for sound-based attacks. People reported loud electronic screeching from her boots, and other times they reported feeling a blast of what felt like sonic waves from her. It _could_ just be support gear, just like all the other reported effects, but...

Her frown grew, gaze unfocused as she stared at Kyouka's empty desk.

Three weeks ago, Kyouka suddenly stopped coming to class and responding to her text messages. Around the same time, Kaminari Denki missed school for a few days and then showed up acting strange even by his standards. And since then, two vigilantes had suddenly appeared with what seemed like a variety of Quirks on hand, but each having one which _closely_ matched one of the absent teens.

It could be a coincidence, it could just be desperate thinking because she was so worried about her best friend. But Momo couldn't shake the feeling that there was a connection, and she had no idea how to proceed from here.

* * *

Snow fell lightly over the streets of Odawara as Todoroki Shouto walked down the street, scarf tugged over his mouth. Today he had Monoma and Ojiro shadowing him, the duo relieving the more temperature-sensitive Asui and Mongoose so they could rest somewhere warm. It was a cold day that had most people seeking shelter, and there was no doubt they'd call off the search soon.

Until then though, Shouji Mezou determined to follow them at a distance, keeping a wary eye on the Todoroki boy. He stood on the rooftop of a strip mall watching them walk below, crouched near a sign so he could easily duck out of sight if they happened to look up. Beside him he could hear Tsuburaba's teeth lightly chattering, rubbing his gloved hands to keep them warm.

"Parasyte, can we _please_ go inside?" he asked softly. "I'm sure Lee and Kaitou can handle themselves fine. They've actually got _some_ training and experience."

"They probably can," Mezou agreed. "But they'll have even better luck if we're there to help." Tsuburaba groaned but didn't try to protest, just kept trying to warm himself. Mezou had no obligation to watch over Todoroki, but he had gotten the call from Nakamura filling him in on the situation. For some reason Todoroki wanted to look for a _villain_, which naturally unnerved him.

As best as they could guess, Todoroki had been placed under the influence of a Quirk to compel him to look for Gentle Criminal and his sidekick. Mezou had no idea why those two would be the targets. Gentle Criminal had no connection to any villainous organizations that they knew of, and though he'd never met the man, he doubted he would seek Todoroki himself. It just didn't fit with his MO.

The odds of his involvement seemed even lower now that Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow had moved on to Hosu. Everyone had been on edge since spying the news footage of the villainous duo fleeing Ingenium yesterday. If he _was_ involved in whatever was happening with Todoroki, it would have been more reasonable to stay in Odawara rather than move. So far Todoroki had yet to find out about the villains' departure, and they'd prefer to keep it that way.

Mezou sighed quietly to himself as the trio turned around a corner, heading to the edge of the roof while gesturing to Tsuburaba that they needed to move. The smaller boy nodded as he followed and breathed out a puff of air over the edge, forming a clear, circular platform in the space between the two buildings. The two hopped on top of it and jumped onto the next building, Tsuburaba taking lead so he could create a path.

As they walked along Mezou let himself stew in his thoughts. He just couldn't stop thinking about why Todoroki had the compulsion to seek out Gentle Criminal specifically. Clearly, they lacked details, but Mezou still felt like there was something... _missing_, even beyond the general lack of information.

Almost like Nakamura had left out some details while talking to him and only given him the bare bones of the situation.

He didn't know _why_ the older teen would hold something back, but he couldn't get the nagging thought out of his head. It irked him because he had no reason to doubt his senior and he _knew_ that. In the end he couldn't tell if he was just being paranoid which only served to further irritate him, not that he let it show. The only explanation he could think of for his weird mood and doubts was that Todoroki's presence served as some sort of trigger, digging up those memories he'd only just begin to move past.

_Had meeting that man really changed him so much?_

Ultimately he shelved the thought, focusing his attention on the trio of teens as they came into sight once more. Mezou couldn't explain _why_ this stuck out to him, but for now all he could do was trust his instincts and focus on his task.

* * *

Through some miracle, they had done it.

They had _finally_ talked Shittyraki into letting Hijack out of his cell.

Katsuki remained largely quiet as Mr. Compress led him and Eyebags on a second round on of his grand tour, exactly as he'd predicted. Hijack craned his head to look at each door he pointed out, looking like some kind of curious kitten or something. The vigilante still had a muzzle and still needed to be supervised by a villain (and no, Toga did _not_ count, which thank _fuck_), but _fuck_ if this wasn't a major improvement. Between being in the hallway and the fact he was carrying that dumb cat, Eyebags almost seemed relaxed. _Almost._

Katsuki tuned out most of the tour since he'd already heard all this shit before, instead thinking about Deku. Deku had joined them for the first leg of the tour, but while going through the hall with Eraserhead's cell he'd just _stared_ at the door really hard before excusing himself. The nerd probably wanted to go visit him, and Katsuki wouldn't blame him. He needed to earn that guy's trust, and _fast_.

Like the nerd had started rambling last night, their next step would probably be to convince the villains to let Katsuki and the Purple Wonder join in on the visits to him. No way would they convince the villains to let them remove Hijack's fucking muzzle anytime soon, and they still had no fucking clue on how to remove the fucking bombs strapped to their ankles. Meeting this Eraserhead guy and getting his trust was the only thing they really _could_ do right now. Maybe he'd have some ideas on what to do next.

Either way, as much as he hated it, right now he and Hijack just couldn't do _shit_ towards escaping. They had too many eyes on them, all they could do was act as a soundboard for Deku or suggest stuff for him and that Uraraka chick to look into. Their only ally outside of this shithole was some girl Deku knew that Katsuki had never heard of, and who knew how useful she'd actually be.

Just, the odds were stacked against them, and he knew it. They _all_ knew it.

They had a muzzled vigilante who couldn't use his Quirk, a partial "amnesic" and formerly Quirkless kid who _magically developed a fucking strength Quirk that could apparently break his bones_, a Pro Hero who had a broken leg and probably PTSD from whatever hellhole he'd been stuck in before getting dragged here, a girl with some weird anti-gravity Quirk or some shit who had JUST run away from home and who only Deku knew, and then Katsuki, who was a _fucking badass, thank you very much_, but still an untrained teenager.

Oh, and a cat. A plain old useless cat that they now needed to get out too.

Escaping in one piece would be a fucking _miracle_. No matter what happened, how well they planned, he knew _something_ would go wrong. They were the classic ragtag group of teens going up against a whole organization of villains, and they didn't even know just _who_ they were up against. Deku couldn't remember all the members, they had no idea how that Aiko chick would react, and they had no idea what the fuck _Seiko_ knew or what side she was on—

He had to stop thinking about it now before he started exploding something. Katsuki clenched his jaw and shoved the thoughts away as Magic Man twirled in front of another door. "And this is the bar!" he announced, pushing it open to reveal the bar.

Neither he nor Hijack made any move to pass through the door, just eying the space warily. A whole _horde_ of villains sat around the tables and counter, the air thick with cigarette smoke that made Katsuki's eyes water. He didn't know if it was better or worse that Shigaraki wasn't among them. More than a few shifty-eyed leers turned their way, making him grit his teeth as he glared right back at them.

After several seconds Mr. Compress closed the door with a grandiose shrug as he added, "But of course, you two probably won't ever go there. _We_ know not to hurt you since you're dear Midoriya-kun's friends, but the bar's patronage is a bit more... diverse, I should say, and not all of them quite as amenable to the Alliance's rules. Kurogiri can only keep an eye on so much in the bar, so no need to bog him down with more people."

That suited Katsuki fine. He'd rather not step foot into that fucking cesspool of villain filth and smoke and alcohol, his skin crawled just thinking about it. Hijack didn't say as much obviously but he probably agreed, given how he actually edged a little closer to Katsuki and seemed to hold Sushi tighter. Fuck, Katsuki _really_ hoped none of those freaks recognized him, he didn't know enough about Hijack's career to know.

"Moving on, our tour is almost done, so let's continue!" Discount Magician declared, and basically flounced down the hallway as they followed in silence. At least one good thing had come from the tour: he now knew they absolutely would _not_ be escaping through the bar exit. That was small and obvious, but it was _something_.

The odds might be stacked against them, but that wouldn't be enough to keep Bakugou Katsuki down.

* * *

Going to school without Mina felt strange and quiet.

Kumiko felt weirdly out of her element as she walked into the lunchroom, her best friend's absence more noticeable than ever. She crossed the cafeteria and went straight to their usual table, slipping into her seat with a sigh. Anjou had already sat at her own spot on the other side of the table, busy looking at her phone as always. For a few seconds neither of them spoke, just sat there.

Then Kumiko slumped in her chair with a drawn-out groan, letting her head fall onto the table next to her bento box. "This sucks," she mumbled, and Anjou snorted.

"Missing Ashido already?" she asked.

"Yes," Kumiko groaned.

Don't get her wrong, if Mina was there Kumiko would probably be giving her the silent treatment for being so _stupid_ last Friday. But instead, the girl had actually _done it_. She had actually up and run away from Kamino, quite possibly never to return. And Kumiko had actually _helped_ her do it, even if it mostly just amounted to not telling anyone everything she'd heard and playing errand girl for Anjou.

All day, other kids at school had been shooting her weird looks, not outright avoiding her or anything but still clearly staring. Gossip spread fast here at Sakakura. Everyone knew about Mina and Kirishima's big vigilante moment before the weekend ended, and it felt like their big escape act became common knowledge before classes even started today. As Mina's best friend, it made sense she'd get a lot of attention.

Kumiko was surprised none of her classmates had asked her anything yet, but also kinda not? It was one of those things that felt weirdly taboo to talk about. That, and what do you say to someone whose best friend ran away? It was just awkward all around.

The police didn't have those reservations though, so she'd spent a good chunk of yesterday after school at the station being questioned. She had followed Anjou's advice as close as she could, never outright lying to the police but not telling the full truth either. No, she had no idea where Mina and Kirishima might have gone. Yes, Mina _had_ been acting a bit weird lately, but it hadn't been a _radical_ change. She did seem really antsy about being stuck inside on house arrest, and also bored.

No, she had no idea why Mina would leave a note saying "_my people need me_" but that had been _such_ a Mina thing she couldn't help but burst into laughter after hearing about it.

Kumiko definitely wasn't laughing now though. She lifted her head just enough to pool her arms under her chin, looking at Anjou almost blearily. "You're not even gonna talk?" she grumbled irritably, and Anjou shrugged.

"I'm more of a 'deadpan quip to stupid things' kind of girl."

"It's just so weird and _quiet_!" Kumiko whined, letting her face fall back down into her arms. "It even feels weird that Kiri's not here, and he's only been sitting with us for, like, a week." Anjou just hummed, and if Kumiko didn't know any better she'd say the other girl was just pretending to listen. She _did_ know better though. Despite always being on her phone, Anjou was _always_ paying attention.

That was why Kumiko had decided to go along with this. Anjou wasn't the type of person to impulsively buy into something. She was a cynic through and through, always questioning stuff before making any sort of judgment. If she felt that Mina's ridiculous story might be true enough to develop that whole escape plan, then there _had_ to be something concrete behind her reasoning. Even if she wouldn't tell them anything.

Kumiko pitched her voice her voice low, eyes flitting around the cafeteria to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. "Well, do you think you're still going on that trip tomorrow?" she asked. "The police won't, like, call you in for questioning or something?"

Anjou nodded as she picked at her food, spearing a bit of sushi with her chopsticks. "Yeah, I'm still going. I mentioned it last night and they said I'd be good to go. Hard to tell a poor foster kid she has to cancel her first visit with her estranged older brother since summer break," she added with an eye roll, and popped the sushi into her mouth while Kumiko rolled her own eyes. Yeah, hard to argue with that.

A thought occurred to Kumiko then that had her sitting upright. "Hold on, do you think Mina _knows_ you have a brother?" she asked curiously. _Their_ Mina knew, but whether she actually came from another dimension or not, this one didn't even remember Anjou was a foster kid.

Anjou just smirked, an amused glint to her eye. "Nope," she said, popping the 'p,' and then popped in another piece of sushi.

* * *

Kuroe had questions.

He had _serious questions_ for Ran about why two of her friends had to run away from home and hide in _his_ house.

It hadn't been the first time she'd directed runaways to him, but usually kids ran away because they were in danger, or they placed their families in danger. These two though? They had a _Pro Hero_ guarding them full-time. More than that, they had _Oracle_ guarding them, which apparently meant... something.

"_He got really close to catching me,_" his companion sighed over the phone. "_I didn't expect HIM to be there. I could've used the warning, I almost had a heart attack._"

Kuroe just hummed, phone pressed to his ear as he absently scrolled through programming sites on his laptop. "I didn't know who was watching them," he countered. "Ran didn't give me much details beyond 'some underground hero.' But even then, would he really be able to _do_ anything? His Quirk's what, some sort of future sight?"

"_Precognitive reflexes,_" she corrected almost absently. "_Honestly, the name Oracle's always felt a bit much to me. His ability's no where near as impressive as that name makes it sound. Pretty sure he only chose it as a reference to... well, not my place to tell you,_" she settled, vague as ever. "_But it's not _that_ that's got me worked up. He _knows_ me, Kuroe. He'd recognize me in a heartbeat if we fought._"

"Even dressed as a guy with green hair?" he replied, lips twitching upwards in a smirk.

"_Honestly? Yeah, probably. I don't know, even if he somehow didn't recognize the fighting style, I think... I think my Quirk kinda cancels out his?_" She sounded almost frustrated now, uneasy and uncertain. "_Like, I don't know. I only realized this in more recent years, you know that, but some Quirks don't work on me the way they should, especially mentalist ones. Some gives us both migraines, some just... work _weird_, but in his case, it just... never worked. At all. He could never react or predict me._"

"How interesting," he drawled half-heartedly. He couldn't really relate, seeing as he had _no_ Quirk, but the bitterness over that had long since faded into apathy. Which was for the better, considering _who_ he was talking to. "Just to double-check, you're talking about your natural one, right?"

"_...Yes, I am,_" she sighed, and muttered almost too quietly for the phone to pick up, "_I hate that that's a valid question._" Kuroe just snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, thanks for the help on short notice, even if it turned out to be a bigger risk than you expected."

"_Don't mention it, it was fun to use my chemistry knowledge again for once, even if it was just making overpowered smoke bombs._" She sounded a bit more chipper now, clearly satisfied. Maybe he'd made a mistake enabling her love of chemistry again, since with this one he knew it was a slippery slope, but hey, it made her happy, which was good enough. "_Those kids made it to Odawara safe, right?_"

"Yeah, they did," he confirmed, leaning back in his chair so he could glance into the living room. He could see them both sitting in front of his TV, passionately playing a game console he'd bought at a thrift shop on a whim and never really touched. Ashido let out a disappointed wail as Kirishima gave a loud whoop, his sharp teeth on full display as he grinned at the screen. "I think they're trying to murder each other in some game right now, so they're doing okay, I guess."

He could hear her snort in amusement. "_My runaway's doing the same thing. Tomura left a game console here a while back, and she loaded up... well I don't know what it is, but she's shooting a lot of demons and she's really enthusiastic. Really did not expect that from such a sweet-looking girl._"

Now it was Kuroe's turn to snort. "Sounds kinda like you at that age," he mused. "I mean, obviously I knew _something_ was off with you, seeing as you uppercut Hondou in the jaw the first week we met, and later came up with the whole _Endeavor kill formula_ which still kinda freaks me out. But I still never would've guessed back then that you'd be willing to march into the lair of the biggest bad of all time just to demand a Quirk."

"_He already gave me one, so no reason to expect him to refuse again,_" she replied, voice unusually cool and serious. "_I knew my potential value to him, and I knew he'd see it too. It was definitely the riskiest move of my life, and I've definitely made mistakes since then. But given what was at stake, I have no regrets about what I did that day._"

Kuroe's smirk grew more wry and rueful, his mood a little more sober.

"I know, Aiko, I know."

* * *

Though he'd now been captured by the Villain Alliance, Shouta found little had changed in his daily routine from before. He still spent much of his time alone, the monotony only broken by visits from Izuku to bring food or do whatever else the kid wanted. After rebinding his wrists in front of him the other villains didn't bother showing up to drag him to the bathroom attached to his cell anymore, much to his relief, which left Izuku as his only visitor.

Well, _almost_ the only visitor. Last night some thugs had barged inside to drag him to the bathroom to shower and change the splint. It had been the first time he'd bathed in who knows how long, having only been given two opportunities to clean himself since his captivity began. Those times he'd been supervised while sitting on the floor of the shower wiping away the dirt, but this time they injected him with some sort of muscle relaxant so that he couldn't do _anything_.

To call it "stressful" would be an understatement. He had to sit on a stool in the shower helplessly while the thugs wiped him down, and they hadn't exactly been gentle while they scrubbed off _months'_ worth of grime, dirt and dried blood. Shouta had been left gritting his teeth a lot as they spent close to an hour dragging the cloth over his bruises and cuts.

The only time they were remotely careful was while handling his broken leg. They cleaned it as carefully as possible (while shoving a towel in his mouth to muffle any screams), and then changed him complete with a new splint. Maybe they felt pity for him, because he was pretty sure the guys had injected him with a painkiller afterwards. Whatever that stuff was, it gave him the best sleep he'd had since coming here because his leg didn't bother him at _all_ for once.

Either way, Shouta would rather not have a repeat of that anytime soon. The sheer vulnerability had left his nerves more frayed than they'd been in a long time. Luckily since he no longer seemed to be at risk of being tortured and couldn't really move much anyway, he doubted he'd get dirty enough to require another shower anytime soon. Which was honestly kind of a shitty way to think about it since even he knew he should bathe regularly for hygiene and health reasons, but in these circumstances it was definitely a luxury.

Since the shower had been just last night, he doubted he'd have any other visitors besides Izuku for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, anyway. Shouta would much rather deal with just him than any of the _actual_ villains, because he actually had a chance at getting the kid to work with him. Building trust would likely be slow going, but after this long in captivity he could be patient.

Between visits from the kid Shouta found himself sleeping rather often for lack of anything else to do. Given he'd just received lunch Shouta didn't expect any more visits for some time and had curled up to take a nap, but when he heard a knock he quietly sighed to himself and forced his eyes to open. He had _just_ gotten comfortable, or as comfortable as one could when sleeping on the hard floor with a broken leg.

It took more willpower than it should to sit up and face the door as it opened, grateful whoever visited had the decency to warn him rather than barge right in. He still had _some_ dignity after all, and he'd rather not be found curled up looking as miserable and pathetic as he felt. Still, he found his eyebrows raising when Izuku stepped inside, arms loaded with pillows and blankets.

"Hi, Eraserhead!" he greeted with a small smile as he closed the door with his foot. "I know I was just here, but I was just on a tour with my friends and I noticed that some of the other cells in this hallway had furniture like beds but yours doesn't. Then I realized you must be sleeping on the floor, and I can't imagine that would be comfortable with a broken leg. So I asked Tomura-nii if we could move you to a cell with a bed, but he said no, but _then_ Kurogiri said I could bring you blankets and pillows, and I figured that would at least be more comfortable, right?"

He babbled nervously as he dropped his load onto the floor near Shouta, arranging the pillows atop one blanket into a makeshift bed of sorts. Once he finished he paused, looking at the other blanket and then at Shouta's bound, mitten-covered hands. Mittens that made gripping rather difficult. "Uh, I think I might still have to cover you at night if you want a blanket, though..."

He fidgeted awkwardly, avoiding the disbelieving gaze Shouta shot him. He hadn't expected the kid to actually _care_ about his comfort, none of the other villains did. Was this some sort of ploy? To earn his trust or something? Shouta had _barely_ started trying to build a rapport with the kid, so it made him wonder what Izuku wanted.

"It's fine," he said anyway. "I don't need a blanket at night, it's not that cold in here." No point vocalizing his suspicions yet. He couldn't exactly act on them with his broken leg anyway. Besides, if he got really cold he could still probably grab the blanket, even if the mittens would make gripping the fabric tricky.

The teen sagged with relief, though he still looked anxious. "Okay, good. I mean, not good, but—gack." He slumped with dejection this time, looking thoroughly put off by his own rambling. Clearly the kid had some social anxiety issues.

_Is he being abused?_ A critical part of Shouta's brain latched onto the obvious explanation, but then dismissed it almost immediately. It was pretty clear Shigaraki favored him after all, given he'd gone out of his way to secure Shouta for the kid as a _pet_. He imagined the notoriously impulsive villain would kill anyone who tried to hurt his brother. So the kid had general anxiety? Maybe it stemmed from being Quirkless.

He decided to shelve the thoughts for now, nodding at the kid. "Thanks. You didn't have to do this."

Izuku flushed and waved his hands, sputtering, "Ah, no, it's nothing! I just wish I could do more, but..." He faltered, trailing off with a sigh. "Sorry." He perked up then before reaching into his pocket, and Shouta's eyes nearly bulged when he pulled out a cell phone. "Oh! But, uh, while I'm here, I opened up the news today and there's this big event today..."

As the kid babbled Shouta just stared at the phone, barely listening as his mind raced. If he could just get that, he could use it to call for help. Even if he didn't know the location, the phone could be tracked and then he could be _free_.

Except, he knew that he _couldn't_. Stealing the phone right from the kid's hands would do nothing, the kid would either call for help or villains would come investigate long before help could arrive. He couldn't exactly sneak it away while the kid was distracted either, not with his leg broken and basically rooting him to one spot. Even if he managed to get it somehow, the mittens meant he wouldn't be able to use it.

His heart began to sink, the device taunting him. Freedom and hope felt so _close_, he could almost touch it, but he knew it wouldn't work. Its presence just felt cruel and mocking, reminding him of how _powerless_ he really was right now.

"...sir? Ai—er, Eraserhead, sir?" He blinked slowly as the boy's voice came back into focus, and he tore his gaze from the mocking phone to see the kid looking at him with obvious concern. "Are you okay?"

"I'm... fine." A bald-faced lie, but he didn't want to talk about it any further. "Just tired. What were you saying? I didn't catch the last part."

"O-oh, uh..." Izuku shifted anxiously, scratching the back of his neck. "I was just asking, do you ever listen to Present Mic's show?" Once again Shouta found himself freezing for completely different reasons, staring at the kid as he rambled. "It's just, I really like listening to it, and today he's doing this impromptu charity special to raise money for... something about animals? I don't know the details, they literally just decided to do it today. And I was wondering since you're probably bored most of the time, if maybe you'd want to listen too...?"

The kid's voice trailed off with a hopeful note while Shouta _stared_, questioning his ears. Present Mic—_Hizashi_. How long had it been since he'd heard his friend's voice? How long since he'd even let himself _think_ of him? He found himself frozen, unable and _unwilling_ to vocalize any of this to the kid. After several long moments though he forced himself to nod, hoping his expression remained neutral and unmoved.

"Fine," he grunted, and the kid's face lit up bright than the sun. He watched the kid pad to a corner to sit against the wall and start tapping on his phone, while Shouta just dragged himself over to the blanket and rested his head on the pillows. Damn, if it didn't feel _good_ after so long of having nothing but hard floors to sleep on, but he didn't feel the tiniest bit tired, his heart pounding in anticipation.

Soon enough a familiar voice cut through the silence, and he _swore_ he felt his heart stutter to a stop. "_—was one hell of a show!_" a familiar voice crowed, and it took _effort_ not to audibly choke up at the sound. Hizashi. "_I swear, listeners, I've never seen a crowd more energetic than that! It felt like the air was alive! I'm so glad you got the chance to see it in person too, dear caller!_"

It was some of the most inane chatter he'd heard and Shouta had no idea what he was talking about, but he didn't care. It was _Hizashi_, and hearing his voice made something settle inside him. He closed his eyes as he tilted his head to make sure Izuku wouldn't see his face, letting his best friend's voice flow over him for the first time in months.

He had no idea how he'd make it out of this yet, but he knew he had to if only to see him again.

* * *

**Surprise! You get an update! Mainly because I think I broke my foot and I need the distraction while waiting to go to urgent care since they close at noon for lunch and it's currently 12:10. Yaaaay. (No condolences/advice please, I need the distraction.)**

**I love how the one chapter that covers multiple people over a single, uneventful day has probably made this chapter the most information-laden chapter to date. Soooo much here. ****Remember the time I forgot to include Shouji in the list of kids who haven't appeared? That's because I always had him in mind as a runaway and had already referenced Parasyte at that point. ****Also, remember that phone call Kuroe made a while back about Todoroki? And when he mentioned his sister Ran? That was to Aiko.  
**

**Fun fact: originally during that call, that line about "say hi to your brother" was "say hi to your boyfriend for me", because at that point I was still split between Aiko basically holding Aizawa prisoner at her apartment and Aizawa being gifted to Izuku by Shigaraki. Kuroe even corrected himself "Fine, say hi to your unwilling prisoner for me." I decided on the Petzawa route because it'd be WAY harder for Izuku to rescue everyone if Aizawa is somewhere separate. (Maybe someday I'll post what I've written up of that route. He'd still be traumatized, but hey, no broken leg. Just a bomb on his ankle.)**

**Question for next time: What is your favorite headcanon that got disproven by canon?**


	45. Chapter 45: Bonding Time

Chapter 45

.::Bonding Time::.

"So Anjou will be arriving today, right?"

Ashido was practically bouncing with excitement in her chair as she and Eijirou sat at the kitchen table, eating a late breakfast. Kuroe just nodded as he carried his own empty bowl to the sink, replying, "Yeah. She was already supposed to come over this weekend before everything went down. She should be here around five or six."

"Yes!" Ashido let out an excited whoop while Eijirou just quietly munched on his cereal. This marked their third day here, and so far the adventure had been... kinda boring, actually. After the initial adrenaline rush of running away, and then getting a ride from a former vigilante about to become a Pro Hero, nothing really happened. They'd ended up spending all day yesterday just playing some games Kuroe owned.

Honestly, the more time that passed, the more he realized just how _bad_ of an idea this was. They had run off from a hero's watch, ridden with a total stranger to somewhere they didn't know, and now they were staying with a guy neither of them actually knew. They didn't even have their phones, just the disposable one Anjou had given Ashido. If this turned out to be a trap or something, they were probably screwed.

_Why_ did he insist on coming along? Like Ashido said, this had nothing to do with him, and now his life would be screwed. It had been the single most impulsive decision he'd ever made, and now that they'd actually gone through with it he couldn't help but regret it. This wasn't just some random adventure he could stop whenever he got tired. Even if he changed his mind and went back home, he'd still get in a _ton_ of trouble for running away in the first place.

This was an actual, _life-changing_ decision that had actual consequences no matter how it ended.

"Earth to Kirishima?" He startled when he heard his name, turning to see Kuroe looking at him from by the kitchen sink. "You done zoning out? You've been staring at your cereal for like two minutes."

"Uh, y-yeah," he said, swallowing. "Sorry, just got lost in thought, I guess." Next to him he noticed Ashido looked kinda worried and frowning at him heavily. Eijirou did his best to ignore her look, just quickly shoveled more spoonfuls of cereal into his mouth to avoid having to say anything else. Once he finished eating he stood up and carried his bowl to the sink, where Kuroe took it and started rinsing it out.

While he did he noticed Ashido _still_ watching him with a frown, making his stomach churn. He knew she'd jump on him any second, and he really didn't want to talk about, well, _everything_. Talking about his worries wouldn't do any good right now; he couldn't just go back to his regular life anymore. All it would do was worry her and make her feel guilty, and she didn't need that.

From the corner of his eye he saw Kuroe eying him thoughtfully while placing the bowls into the dishwasher. "Hey kid, think you'd be up for an errand?" he asked casually, and the question startled Eijirou.

"Huh?"

"I'm running low on some stuff," Kuroe explained with a shrug. "I've got a big deadline tonight, so it'd be helpful if you could grab it for me."

"Wait, you want me to go into _public_?" Eijirou asked, eyes wide. "But—but there are people looking for me, aren't there!?"

"Kid, we've got plenty of stuff we can use to cover you up," Kuroe snorted, rolling his eyes. "It's cold enough to get away with covering your mouth with a scarf. You can wear fake glasses or an eyepatch if you really want to be careful."

"Ooh, could I go too?" Ashido asked eagerly.

"No," he responded flatly, making her sink in her chair with a dejected groan. "I told you when you got here I don't have the right stuff to cover you up, and it's too soon for you to go out anyway. We can disguise Kirishima way more easily. So, what do you say?" he asked, turning to look at Eijirou. "Wanna do it?"

He frowned, still feeling anxious at the idea of going out in public. But at the same time, he couldn't deny that he felt a little stir-crazy. Being stuck inside all day had already sucked in his own apartment, and having it happen in a completely unfamiliar place turned out to be even worse.

That was how half an hour later found Eijirou walking down the street with his chin tucked into an overly thick red scarf and hands shoved into the pockets of his oversized coat. The knitted hat and ear flaps turned out to be useful for more than just covering his hair; the cold chill to the air had his teeth chattering. Not many people seemed eager to walk around today, the sidewalks mostly empty.

He felt no small amount of relief when he reached the convenience store Kuroe mentioned and could escape the bitter chill. The store didn't have its heating turned up all the way, so he felt comfortable keeping the scarf over his mouth while he pulled out the list Kuroe had given him. Most of it was simple stuff, like batteries, toilet paper, bandages, shampoo...

It was while getting the last thing that he found himself pausing. In the same aisle as all the hair care products were packages of hair dye, the boxes showing models sporting a rainbow of hair colors. He found his gaze drawn to one showing a woman sporting bright red hair, and found himself biting his lip.

"Red, huh," he said softly to himself, absently tugging at a loose strand of hair poking out by his ears. Ashido had mentioned that he had red hair in her memories of that other dimension. It seemed so weird and random at first, even if he was trying to be some "new self" or whatever, but then he'd realized that _had_ to be a reference to Crimson Riot. It added up, along with all her sudden references to "manliness," which had been a major part of Crimson Riot's image.

That had been the other thing that had made him first think that maybe she _wasn't_ crazy besides the whole Red Riot thing. He admired Crimson Riot a lot, but it wasn't like he shouted it from the rooftops or anything. Plenty of people liked heroes without trying to copy them like that.

"_You dyed it red when we got into UA as a promise you're a manly man!_"

His mouth thinned, and after a few seconds he grabbed the box and added it to the basket. Kuroe had given him enough money to get some stuff for himself too, and they had a few hours before Anjou would arrive. As he turned and started to walk away he almost bumped into another boy also looking at dye. He jumped back with a surprised yelp, the other boy startling and spinning to face him.

"Oh, sorry dude! I didn't see you there!"

"That's okay," the boy said. "I, uh, didn't see you either, so..." He trailed off awkwardly, and Eijirou had to try not to stare at the eyepatch over his left eye. The kid looked like he'd seen better days, given the ragged state of his clothing and his dirty-looking black hair. Eijirou knew not to judge people by their looks alone, but he looked like he might actually be homeless, the thought making his stomach churn uncomfortably.

"Yuki-san, did you find it yet?" someone called, and they both turned to see a blond boy at the end of the aisle with a faintly impatient look on his face.

"I'm just trying to figure out the brand," the black-haired boy—Yuki, apparently—said, turning back to the dye. "I... don't really know which one to use." The blond boy rolled his eyes as he strolled over, grabbing one of the boxes.

"Here, this one should be good enough," he said, and then after a glance at Eijirou's basket snatched up a different box of red dye and held it out. "And if that dye's supposed to be for you, you should use this brand instead."

"Wait, what?" Eijirou asked, a bit startled to be addressed by a stranger.

"This brand has some bleach mixed in," the boy explained. "The one you grabbed is for people with lighter hair colors. That strand of hair sticking out is black, so it won't work unless you plan to bleach it first."

"O-oh, I see... Thanks, man." Eijirou nodded, taking the box offered and putting the original one back. "It's, uh, kinda an impulse thing, so I don't know much about hair dye."

"I figured as much." The blond smiled politely and nodded at him, turning to the other boy. "Come on Yuki, Lee's probably waiting for us at the checkout."

"Right." Yuki nodded and headed down the aisle, the blond following but not before casting Eijirou a final look over his shoulder.

"Tell Kuroe-san that Kaitou says hi," he called lightly, and Eijirou nearly dropped the basket. _What the—how—!?_ The blond paused at his clearly stunned look, a faint smirk appearing as he turned to face him more fully. "That's one of his coats, I recognize it from the stain on the right sleeve." Eijirou glanced down and sure enough, it _did_ have an old stain near the wrist, mostly faded but still visible. "I suppose we might be seeing each other around in the future, so I hope we can get along."

"Uh... Sure? M-me too I guess." Eijirou nodded awkwardly, and the blond—or, Kaitou, maybe?—just nodded back with a smile before following Yuki. Eijirou stared after him for a moment before turning around to go find the rest of the stuff on the list. As he began searching for soap he couldn't help but wonder just how the guy knew Kuroe, and why he thought they'd see more of each other.

* * *

Fact: Bakugou Katsuki's explosions came from his sweat, which had nitroglycerin-like properties. The more sweat he built up, the stronger the resulting explosions. However, despite that, he could only ignite explosions around his palms. He couldn't generate them around the soles of his feet, his legs, his shoulder, or around his tear ducts. The explosions also centered directly around his hands; he couldn't detonate a remote explosion, or trigger them simply by staring and willing an object to explode.

If he could, the door with the biohazard sign would have been reduced to less than ash long ago.

Izuku fidgeted awkwardly as his friend glared at the door, corners of his lips curled downwards with obvious loathing. "What the hell are those bastards even hiding down there?" he growled under his breath.

"I don't know, but I can't exactly ask," Izuku replied lowly, shooting a discreet glance over his shoulder where Shinsou talked to Magne with Sushi resting on his shoulders. In keeping with Shigaraki's rules for letting Shinsou walk around the base, they needed to have an adult following them at all times and today the magnetic-Quirk user had volunteered. Right now she was laughing at something Shinsou typed on his phone, suitably distracted from Bakugou's harsh glaring.

They had come to the hallway with the unknown door while wandering randomly around the base. Originally they'd been planning to discreetly scope out escape routes and anything that might be useful towards escaping, or just something for Sushi to play with. Izuku had led them here thinking it'd be useful to specifically point out the door to Aizawa's cell, even if the others couldn't visit him yet. It hadn't taken long for Bakugou to gravitate towards the biohazard door instead though.

They still had no idea what was down there, and they had no idea on how to find out. Based on Mr. Compress's commentary Izuku should know it, so him asking would be a dead giveaway he was having an "episode." Right now would be the _worst_ possible time for them to make that assumption, because this "episode" wouldn't wear off naturally because it wasn't an actual episode. He did ask Seiko, but she had simply refused to explain because that would be "_boring_" so that was out. Meanwhile, if the others asked, the villains probably wouldn't answer—

"Hey, Ferrofreak!" Kacchan suddenly called, startling Izuku out of his thoughts. He'd turned to scowl at Magne, jabbing a finger at the door. "What's behind this stupid door?"

Magne huffed and crossed her arms. "Kid, why are you asking _me_?" she asked.

"Not like there's anyone else around here, right?" Bakugou retorted.

"Last I checked, Izuku knows too," Magne said, and it took all of Izuku's self control not to freeze on the spot and show his horror. _Dang it Kacchan!_ They couldn't risk being found out now! If Izuku got locked away, they'd never be able to escape!

"_He refuses to tell us,_" Shinsou's phone suddenly said. "_He says it's more fun for us to figure it out by ourselves._" Magne frowned at that.

"Really?" she asked, and Izuku bobbed his head.

"Y-yeah! I just, there's not a lot to do here, you know? So I figured it'd be kinda fun to have some mysteries for them to solve, I guess?" ...Okay, that sounded weak even to his own ears, and he did not blame Magne for the doubtful look. So he sighed and took a chance. "Okay, fine, I'm just not sure I want to tell them yet. Baby steps and all that, right?"

That seemed to go over better with Magne, who nodded. "Alright, that makes more sense. I don't know what's down there either, so I'll take your word for it." It took a lot of control not to visibly react to that. Magne didn't know what was down there either?

"Hold on, then who DOES know?" Kacchan demanded, and Magne shrugged.

"No clue, kid. All I know is Aiko marked that place off-limits, and no one goes down there. Not even Shigaraki. Last guy to sneak down there came out missing eyebrows and no idea what happened to them." Well that was ominous, but it also helped to know that not many people would be able to call out Izuku on not knowing what was down there.

Which... probably wouldn't come up much anyway, but still.

At that moment a distant explosion sounded, making them all freeze. Judging by the way everyone else's heads swiveled towards the biohazard sign, clearly they all had the same thought: '_What the heck's down there!?_' After a few seconds though another explosion sounded and they quickly realized that it _wasn't_ coming from the basement, the noise definitely from somewhere behind them.

Magne's face quickly schooled into something more serious as she turned around. "Playtime's over, kids," she said gruffly. "Go back to your rooms, I'm gonna check it out." She didn't wait for a response before stalking off, leaving the trio to exchange considering looks. Izuku didn't need to ask to know the other two had made up their minds: they were NOT going back to Shinsou's cell.

"Okay, we've got two options," Bakugou said. "We can either go check out what the hell's behind that fucking door, or go meet that Eraser guy."

"_Door,_" Shinsou typed onto the phone.

"Alright, that's one vote for the door," Bakugou said with a nod. "I'm fine with either choice. Deku, you know this place better than us. Which one do we go with?"

Izuku bit his lip as he considered it. "Either one's gonna get us in a lot of trouble," he pointed out.

"Are you saying we should just go back to the rooms?" Bakugou scoffed.

"No, this is a good opportunity!" Izuku denied quickly. "We're not likely to get another one like this for a while! But I think we need to figure out which one will get us in the least amount of trouble. And also, Sushi." He nodded at the cat still curled up on Shinsou's shoulders, getting a nod of respect back from the vigilante.

"_I am not sharing Sushi,_" he typed, and that had Izuku pausing because, _really?_

Bakugou looked equally unimpressed with the reasoning. "_That's_ why you voted for the door!?"

"_The door has no one interested in stealing Sushi. Probably._"

"We don't know that for sure," Izuku said, resisting the urge to groan. "Gah, forget it, we're just wasting time! We don't know how long Magne will be gone, or if someone else will be sent to check on us."

"He's right you know."

It took a LOT of self control not to scream in alarm at the voice suddenly _right beside them_. They all whirled to see Aiko standing there, a cheerful smile on her face as she raised a hand in greeting. "Yo."

"W-what the—wh-when did—wh-where—_how_?!" Izuku couldn't even form a coherent sentence, too stunned by her sudden appearance, while Sushi released an unhappy hiss.

"Fucking hell, where the fuck did you come from!?" Kacchan blurted for him, jabbing an accusing finger. "Did you just fuckin' teleport or something!?"

Weirdly enough Aiko seemed to light up at the string of curses instead of act reasonably offended, beaming at him brightly. "Nah, I'm just really quiet."

"_Who are you?_" Shinsou's phone asked, the vigilante edging to stand behind Izuku. He tensed as Aiko's attention zeroed in on him, her head tilting to the side.

"Are you trying to use Izuku as a human shield?" she asked, and they all stiffened.

"...Right, names!" Izuku said, clapping his hands. Aiko sounded more curious than angry, but he'd rather not risk her getting mad so it was time to distract her. "Guys, this is Aiko-nee, who I've told you about. Aiko-nee, this is Kacchan—I mean, Bakugou," he nodded to Bakugou, who eyed Aiko warily, and then gestured to Shinsou, "And this is Hijack!"

Aiko's attention quickly focused back on him and she smiled. "Thank you for the introductions, Izukun. Though I don't actually need them since I already know who's who," she added with a light laugh and the other two teens tensed up once more, suggesting _they_ didn't know _her_. Still, she smiled at them and added, "It's nice to finally see you two though! I would've introduced myself earlier, but _someone_ didn't tell me about you guys being here."

She slanted a pointed look at Izuku, which he ignored with a gulp. Fortunately Shinsou changed the topic, his phone speaking up. "_You forgot Sushi._"

"Oh, right, sorry," Izuku quickly apologized, and nodded at Sushi. "That's Sushi. Kurogiri and Shigaraki gave her to us on Wednesday, though Hijack spends the most time with her so far." At this point Sushi hopped off Shinsou's shoulders to saunter over to Aiko, prompting the woman to drop to a crouch. She scratched Sushi's ear lightly and got a pleased purr in response, while Shinsou made a muffled sound of betrayal.

"Sushi, huh?" she hummed, smiling as the kitten bumped her head into Aiko's palm. "Lemme guess, Kurogiri named her?"

"What, does the Mistfucker have bad naming sense or something?" Bakugou asked sarcastically and she snorted.

"He names _every_ cat Sushi until someone else renames it. It's kind of a running joke around here at this point. But still, you've had a cat for a full day and never told me?" She gave a wistful sort of sigh, rolling her shoulders as she added, "I know you're getting more independent, but I still like to hear updates about your life, Izuku..."

"Um, w-what're you doing here, anyway?" Izuku asked, changing the topic.

"_Do you know what those explosions were?_" Shinsou's phone sounded not even a second after he finished, having probably been typing that already.

"That would be Slycer in the kitchen," Aiko replied with a wry smirk, and Izuku recoiled. He didn't know the villain named Slycer well, but the man's cooking skills—or lack thereof—had been legendary. Apparently that... _thing_ Toga made his first week here had nothing on that guy's cooking, partially because Slycer almost never finished before something would go wrong. Izuku had overheard Twice whining about having to buy replacement kitchen equipment last week. And the few times he _did_ manage to complete something without destroying the kitchen...

Maybe there was a bit of muscle memory involved, because Izuku's stomach instantly churned at the thought of Slycer _cooking_. _What kind of cooking was so bad that it ingrained an automatic reaction in someone's body like this!?_

"And as for your other question," Aiko continued, "I dropped by because I had to grab some stuff for my job. I was catching up with the others in the bar when, well, _that_ happened," she shrugged. "Then Magne came running to make sure we weren't under attack, and when everyone realized you'd been left alone I volunteered to check on you instead. Which is very good for you, seeing as you guys are apparently up to something," she added cheerfully.

Oh. Oh, _crap_. Izuku had to fight down the panic, because he had no idea what she'd heard or how long she'd been there. "How much did you hear?" Kacchan demanded warily.

"Just the last bit where you guys mentioned voting for a door," she replied, and that _really_ didn't clear up Izuku's anxiety.

"We were wondering—what's down there?" he blurted, pointing to the door as he rambled. "It's just, Mr. Compress says you'd kill us if we went down there, and then Magne said a guy went down and came back with no eyebrows or memories...? But Magne doesn't know what's down there either, just that it's off limits, and the biohazard sign is kinda freaking us out so—"

"_Breathe_, Deku!" Bakugou cut in irritably, and Izuku promptly stopped rambling to take a deep breath. Aiko just watched him with no small amount of amusement, crossing her arms with a faint smirk.

"Do you _really_ want to know?" she asked almost conspiratorially, and all three of them tensed before bobbing their heads eagerly. "Alright then. Leave Sushi and let's go." She strolled to the door and pulled it open, gesturing for them to follow before descending the stairs. The trio stood in shock for a moment and exchanged wary looks before following, Shinsou reluctantly closing the door on a curiously-mewling Sushi.

Izuku... didn't really _want_ to go downstairs. He felt _pretty sure_ there wouldn't be Noumu down there, but he had no idea what else to expect. Some kind of lab obviously, but other than that? He had no idea. Between Magne's story, the sign and the fact that Sushi couldn't come though, he felt like this would be hazardous to their health. Walking into this blindly could be one of the worst ideas they'd had in a while.

But the alternative was risking Aiko finding out about Aizawa-sensei.

Above everything else, Izuku _had_ to keep Aiko from finding out he was there. The fact she had his goggles suggested _some_ sort of history between them, and given she worked with villains... It probably wasn't just friendly admiration. He had no idea if Aiko knew he was there yet, because Kacchan had _definitely_ said "Eraser" after Magne left, and if she'd heard _that_...

No. He needed to make sure she didn't find out.

"Hey, Bakugou," Aiko called after she reached the bottom. "Catch." The blond startled as she tossed something his way, catching it with a scowl.

"The fuck? Is this some kind of suit?" Izuku peered closer and sure enough, it looked like a clear plastic package with a folded up hazmat suit inside? Minus the helmet, but it still looked like one.

"Your sweat's made of a nitroglycerine compound," she told him plainly. "You're a walking safety hazard in this place even if you don't use it. Izuku, Hijack, you two can just stick to gloves and safety glasses." That had them exchanging more wide-eyed looks, gears turning in Izuku's head.

"Is it a chemistry lab?" Izuku blurted. At that point Aiko whirled to face them, and—_were the stars in her eyes sparkling?_

"_Yessss!_" she breathed in an excited hiss, and _yep_, the stars were definitely twinkling. "I set up my lab down here ages ago! You have no idea how amazing and versatile chemistry can be, especially Quirk chemistry!"

"_Quirk_ chemistry?" he repeated, voice oddly close to a squeak, and she bobbed her head excitedly.

"Yes! Like Katsuki-chan's sweat! Did you know there are compounds and solutions that can neutralize it—actually no, of course you do, but there are _also_ solutions that can make it _more_ volatile! Or give the explosion different properties and effects! And that's just _one_ example! So many Quirks function based off a unique chemical reaction. Most fire Quirks, for example, can be neutralized with the Endeavor Kill Formula!"

"The _Endeavor Kill Formula_!?" Izuku repeated in growing horror while Shinsou made a choking sound next to him.

"Ah, just a homemade thing I whipped up when I was a teen," Aiko replied dismissively. "I never actually _used_ it on him or anything, don't worry. I haven't killed a hero yet! ...Somehow," she added under her breath, and Izuku felt a part of his soul just _die_. It just withered and _died_ while she clapped her hands and continued brightly, "_Anyways!_ Chemistry is just so versatile and _fascinating_, you can do so much with it! With the right knowledge, Quirks don't matter! Everyone's equal! And even if their Quirks don't have a chemical counter, you can just throw acid at them instead! Or find the right mix of chemicals to make them flammable!"

As she rambled on passionately she seemed oblivious to the air of dread which had descended over them. Izuku now _immensely_ regretted coming down here, but it was too late to back down now. As she turned to lead them into the actual lab, beginning to spout off basic safety rules, the trio exchanged matching grimaces before reluctantly trudging after her. He knew without asking that all of them had the same thought:

_Aiko was _dangerous_._

* * *

**So update on my foot: yep, it's broken. I broke the fifth metatarsal, the bone in your foot connecting to the little toe. I've been literally living on the couch since Friday. I have a follow-up exam next Monday, so fingers crossed it's healing in a way where I won't have to get pins in it.**

**A more fun ****piece of news: I drew Oracle/Kas! You can find him over on my Tumblr. It also includes some little bits of info about him. Next up, I'm gonna work on Anjou, Saki/Lady of the Night or Mail. Might start with Anjou just because she won't need a full-body reference...  
**

**Not much else to say except I have been waiting a LONG time to reveal Aiko's chemistry passion. She is a mad scientist and loves Quirk chemistry. Her specialty is countering/neutralizing Quirks, but she can also augment them and also loves making a LOT of dangerous stuff. If she weren't a villain, Nedzu would probably snatch her up to work at UA's support department. This chapter and the next are both pretty quiet, so I'll probably do another update this week.**

**Question for next time: W****hat would be the most chaotic point for a canon character to suddenly switch into Ignite so far? (Besides Shigaraki. Shigaraki just wins by default with these questions.)  
**


	46. Chapter 46: Rays of Hope

Chapter 46

.::Rays of Hope::.

Mina had to suppress a squeal as she stood in the bathroom door watching Kiri peer at his reflection. When he came back from the corner store she'd been overjoyed to find he'd bought a bottle of red hair dye, too. She hadn't wasted any time herding him off to the bathroom to get to work. It had taken a while to figure out _how_ to use it, since neither of them had actually dyed their hair before. In the end Kuroe had to step in and help, but after several hours no trace of the original black color remained.

Now he sported a head of hair just as bright red as the Kiri she knew and loved. The shade looked just a _little_ off from her Kiri—really close, but still not _quite_ the same—but it was close enough. Already she felt a huge rush of déjà vu and familiarity, and seeing _this_ Kiri with red hair just made the world finally feel a little more _right_.

"So, does it look alright?" he asked, turning to her with an anxious smile. Despite her excitement Mina pursed her lips for dramatic effect, studying him more critically.

"The color's on-point!" she said with a firm nod. "But your hair's all limp and flat!"

"Uh, this is how it usually is, though?"

"My Kiri spikes it all up!" Mina told him, tugging at her hair around her horns for emphasis. She stepped into the bathroom and nudged Kiri out of the way a bit so she could open the drawers. "Come on, let's see if we can find some hair gel and fix it!"

"Uh, c-can we maybe... not?" Kiri asked, and she paused her search to glance at him. He wasn't looking at her, rubbing his arm as he looked at the floor. "S-sorry, Ashido, but just dying it is already kinda a huge change for me. I'm not sure I'm ready to, uh, spike it up, like you said..." Mina frowned a little as he rambled, but soon nodded.

"Okay, sure," she agreed, closing the drawer a little sheepishly. "Sorry, I guess I got a little excited..." She had to remind herself that this Kiri had a lot more stress and anxiety than hers did, so she shouldn't push him too fast. Changing it to red alone was a _huge_ image change for him and made him look so much different and better, even if he didn't do anything to style it. The black hair had just made him look so _gloomy_, he really did look better with red.

And besides all that, he wasn't _her_ Kiri. This was a totally different Kirishima Eijirou, one with his own life and experiences totally separate from the one she knew. He would never be like her Kiri, not because he was _lame_ or anything (and he absolutely _wasn't_!), but because they were just different people. So she shouldn't try to make him be _like_ her Kiri, but instead help him become the best Kiri he could be!

So with that in mind she pasted on a big grin and declared, "You're one step closer to becoming Red Riot!" He jolted a little at that, eyes widening in surprise, but then he smiled and gave a tiny nod.

"Y-yeah, I guess I am, aren't I," he said quietly, and Mina felt her smile become a little softer. He still had a long way to go, but this Kiri really was on his way to becoming something great, she could already see it now.

She backed off and left the bathroom so he could study his reflection in privacy, heading over to the living room where she'd left the phone to charge. It was now almost five o'clock, and she wanted to check if any messages arrived from Anjou or anyone else.

However, before she could reach it she heard talking in the kitchen. It was too quiet and distant to make out any words, but she perked up as she recognized another voice besides Kuroe's. Mina spun and raced over, sliding into the doorway to see Kuroe standing at the counter, and Anjou standing next to the table where she'd dropped her bag. "An-chan!" she greeted with a cheer, and the other girl nodded at her.

"Hey Ashido," she said, and craned her head to the side a bit before her eyes went wide. "Woah, is that Kirishima?" Mina turned to see Kiri had left the bathroom and followed her, looking at Anjou with a nervous-looking smile.

"Uh, h-hey, Anjou," he said with a small nod. "Yeah, I dyed my hair today... It just finished drying." His comment had Kuroe stepping to the side to get a better look.

"Looks good," he said, and Mina could see Kiri basically _sag_ with relief while Kuroe returned to his original spot. "Red's definitely your color, kid. Wasn't sure how it'd turn out since it's such a big difference from your natural color, but you chose good."

"Yeah... Thanks." Kiri smiled tentatively, looking a bit more confident while Kuroe hummed and nodded.

"Guess Ashido's story had an impact after all, huh?" Anjou asked with a smirk, and Kiri just gave a little shrug.

"I guess so. Plus, I figured it's better for hiding now that we're on the run."

"Have to admit, I'm impressed you managed to pick out a decent brand," Kuroe commented. "The number of times I've seen someone grab the wrong kind..."

"Yeah, I think I grabbed a bad one first," Kiri said with a sheepish laugh. "There were some other guys in the aisle, and one of them told me to use this other brand instead." Mina looked at him in surprise. He hadn't mentioned that part earlier. Before she could start peppering him with questions he perked up and added, "Oh! I forgot, one of them said to tell you Kaitou says hi...?" Kuroe paused at that, glancing his way with slightly wide eyes before smirking.

"He noticed the stain on the coat, didn't he?" he asked, and Kiri jolted a little.

"Uh, y-yeah... How did you...?"

"Kaitou _hates_ that stain. Glares at it every time I lend out that coat." Kuroe chuckled while Mina gave them both quizzical looks.

"Who's Kaitou?" she piped up.

"You'll find out later tonight," Anjou replied cryptically, and _that_ made Mina light up with excitement all over again.

"Wait, is _he_ the one you want us to meet!?"

"Not exactly, but he'll be there," she said. "Anyways, grab something from the fridge and eat, we're leaving in half an hour." The abrupt announcement startled Kiri while Mina perked up ever further.

"We are!?"

"Yep. I already told the others we'll meet them at six. We have to walk there so we have to leave at five thirty at the latest."

Mina started bouncing in place, her excitement reaching fever levels while Kiri frowned. "We're doing it _tonight_?" he asked. "I thought you'd want to wait until tomorrow since it's so late."

"Six isn't _that_ late!" Mina replied with a huff, and he gave her a skeptical look.

"Ashido, it's already dark outside," he said, pointing to a nearby window, and when Mina glanced at it she could see it had indeed already gotten dark. Not pitch black yet, but the sun had _definitely_ gone down.

"...Eh, it'll be fine," she said dismissively, and Kuroe snorted and shook his head.

"It's fine kid, you'll be safe," he said to Kiri. "Odawara's pretty safe crime-wise. Mostly." He paused then, seeming to consider it. "...Okay, it might be a _little_ risky. So if anything happens to my sister, I am obligated to threaten to make you regret being born."

"Sister?" Kiri repeated, and Anjou lifted a hand.

"Yeah, me." Mina gasped, her eyes lighting up.

"You're _siblings_!?" she blurted, and Kuroe shot Anjou an amused smirk.

"Dang Ran, I know we didn't grow up together, but I thought you would've at least mentioned me," he teased.

"I did," Anjou said with a shrug, flashing a smug-looking smirk of her own. "She just forgot." She snickered while Mina stared between them in wonder. She knew Anjou mentioned being a foster kid, but she never thought she might have _actual siblings_! Looking at them side by side, she didn't really notice any common features, but it still felt like she should have _known_ this.

"Hold on," she said, focusing on Kuroe as a thought occurred to her. "You're, like, biological siblings, right? And you're an adult now, right? So why didn't she move—ow!" She yelped as Kiri smacked her arm, shooting him a dark look. "Kiri, what the heck!"

"Ashido, you don't just ask people that!" he hissed, and she paused. Oh, right, that was probably—no, not probably, it was _definitely_ very rude.

Thankfully Kuroe and Anjou didn't take offense to it, just snorting. "Yeah, no, the foster system is just screwed up," Kuroe replied casually. "They never really cared about keeping siblings together if it meant one of them could get a home, especially with big age gaps like ours. And in our case, most people don't want to bother with a Quirkless kid." That made them pause, both Mina and Kiri turning to gape at him. He rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm a Quirkless freak of nature. Gawk all you want."

"Why would being Quirkless make you a freak of nature?" Mina asked with a frown. "I've never met someone Quirkless before, but it doesn't seem like that big of a deal...?"

"Yeah," Kiri agreed. "That's, like, super uncool to think of yourself that way! And you seem pretty awesome so far, so it doesn't really seem like it matters." Kuroe paused as they spoke, looking faintly surprised, and then his smirk returned.

"Good to see Ran has good taste in friends," he chuckled, and Anjou snorted.

"Last I checked, your friends aren't really paragons of society," she pointed out with an eye roll, and he chuckled.

"Not by a long shot. But hey, they treat me like I'm an actual person and not made of glass or subhuman, so that's a win. Honestly, I'm past the point of giving a fuck about having no Quirk personally," he said more to Mina and Kiri than Anjou, "but other people tend to get stuck on that more than you'd think. After having your whole life repeatedly fucked over because of bigots, you tend to get a bit cynical."

Mina and Kiri both frowned, neither of them liking the implications of that. "So what, they split you two up just because you didn't have a Quirk?" Mina asked after a few seconds, and he nodded.

"Pretty much. Plus there's that big age gap I mentioned. By the time Ran's current parents came into the picture I was already in my last year of high school, so I was about to age out of the system anyway. They're decent folks at least, didn't try to stop us from having a relationship or anything."

"But yeah, we're not really all that close," Anjou added with a shrug. "I visit sometimes, but our relationship is more business than siblings at this point."

"Man, that sucks," Kiri muttered while Mina's frown deepened. That really was screwed up, but for once this sounded like something she _couldn't_ blame on all the differences in this stupid world. Villains had nothing to do with kids getting separated in the foster system because of discrimination. For all she knew, the Anjou and Kuroe in _her_ world could be in the same situation.

That last thought made her frown vanish, her irritation replaced by mild surprise. Come to think of it, she hadn't ever really thought about what An-chan was like in _her_ world. It was weird to realize that given how much time they'd spent together. Maybe after this all ended and she got home, Mina could try to track her down?

"It is what it is," Anjou said with a shrug, opening the fridge. "But enough of that. We've got less than half an hour before we have to go." She pulled out three premade bento boxes from the convenience store and carried them to the table. "No time to cook, hope you guys don't mind konbini food." Mina broke into a wide grin, her misgivings vanishing as she plopped into one of the chairs.

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, and turned to Kiri. "C'mon Kiri, sit down and eat so we can _go_!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," he said, joining them at the table while Mina tore into one of the bento boxes. As she began gobbling down the contents it took some conscious self-control to pace herself, her whole body buzzing with adrenaline.

It was so _close_. At five-thirty they'd leave and go off to investigate those leads Anjou mentioned—the whole reason they'd come _here_ instead of looking for Jirou and Kaminari over in Hosu. And then she'd finally, _finally_ have answers!

Just a little longer.

* * *

Shouta sat near the center of his cell in silence, glowering at the door as he pondered over when it would open again. He'd heard voices outside earlier, probably hanging around for fifteen minutes or so before leaving. They hadn't been loud, but he'd recognized one as Izuku and then another, deeper one from the day he'd been taken by the Alliance. It had been unusual enough to get his attention; as far as he could tell this cell must be in an isolated part of the building that didn't get much traffic, given he never really heard _anyone_.

To his frustration, he hadn't been able to make out much of what was said before they left though. Their voices had been mostly quiet, except for one unknown voice which had been VERY loud, and _definitely_ called someone "_Ferrofreak._" Maybe if he'd moved closer to the door Shouta could have heard them more clearly, but as it stood his broken leg kept him from moving. Now that he _wasn't_ in constant fear for his life, he had little to distract himself from the pain. Damn, what he wouldn't give for some painkillers...

He froze as he heard the door's lock click, sitting up to watch it warily. He fully expected it to be Izuku, but given he'd heard multiple voices earlier he couldn't be sure the kid would be alone this time. Thankfully no one else appeared though and only the green-haired boy scooted inside carrying a plate with dinner, with a faintly... _haunted_ look on his face as he closed the door.

"Something happen?" Shouta asked flatly as the teen turned back to him.

"...Chemistry is _terrifying,_" he whispered, and Shouta arched an eyebrow. He recognized the haunted tones of students who'd just been subjected to particularly _enthusiastic_ lectures by Nemuri back when UA still existed, the memory making him almost snort.

"I take it there's a chemist among the Alliance, then," he remarked casually, subtly digging for intel. He had no expectations of being able to pass on anything he learned in the near future, but he'd like to have as much information as possible for if (_when_) he got out.

Fortunately the kid didn't notice his intentions, answering with a dazed look as he put down the plate near Shouta. "I don't know. I don't think she works with the Alliance full-time, but she has a lab here. And it is _terrifying_."

The kid shuddered, which did not help the growing hum of alarm Shouta felt. This was the first time he'd heard of the Alliance having a chemist on hand, and Izuku's reaction did not bode well for what might be down there. The thought they might have some sort of drugs or tools for chemical warfare made his stomach twist anxiously, though he didn't let it show on his face. "What kind of stuff is made in there?" he asked, and the kid opened his mouth to respond only to pause.

"...Wait, I shouldn't tell you," he said, and _dammit_, the kid figured out what Shouta was up to. Izuku waved his hands as he hastily continued, "Um, it's n-not like the Alliance is _using_ that stuff or anything! I mean, I _think_ you'd all know if they were, b-but... I still don't think she'd like me talking about it to, um, you." The kid fidgeted awkwardly, still looking vaguely disturbed but a bit more aware now.

"Whose lab is it?" Shouta questioned, figuring he might as well just ask directly. The kid kept saying "_she_" but Shouta didn't know of many females among the Alliance's members. The only one to come to mind was a teenage girl who had only joined in the recent months before his capture, and she didn't seem like the type to care about chemistry.

Once again the kid froze, clearly hesitating. "...I shouldn't tell you," he repeated, voice little more than a high-pitched squeak, and Shouta's eyes narrowed. There was _definite_ fear there.

"Are you being threatened?" he asked bluntly, because even if this kid was an accomplice to his captors he was still a _kid_.

Izuku winced, looking horrified as he rapidly shook his head. "N-no, not at all! She's just—um, really private, and stuff, and..." He trailed off awkwardly, his eyes glazing over and becoming distant. "...chemistry is _scary_."

...Shouta had a feeling this wouldn't go anywhere. "I'll take your word for it," he said tiredly, taking the plate. Today's dinner was more sandwiches, along with a rice ball with... some kind of wax paper pouch next to it? "What's this?" The kid jolted back to reality at the question, and his eyes lit up as he saw the wax paper.

"Oh! That's for your mittens, so they won't get sticky from the onigiri! I figured you can't really use chopsticks but you probably haven't had rice in a while, so I thought this would be a good compromise. Just..." He started to approach but then froze, clearly hesitating. Realizing his intent, Shouta sighed before pushing the plate towards him and extending his right hand.

"Here, kid. Just put it on. If you're worried about me attacking or something, you don't need to. I can't exactly make any sudden movements with my leg like this." The kid winced guiltily as his eyes flitted to the splint, his mouth pressing into a thin line before he resumed his approach.

Shouta remained still as promised while the kid worked and soon the wax paper was wrapped around the mitten, crinkling loudly when he picked up the onigiri. It _had_ been a while since he'd been able to eat rice, so he really did appreciate the gesture. While he ate Izuku retreated to the corner like usual, fidgeting awkwardly and clearly trying not to look at him.

After a while the kid started mumbling, too low for Shouta to hear but still clearly talking to himself. He didn't notice Shouta finish eating and push away the empty plate, seeming to be off in his own world. Normally he would be fine with that, but he still had the wax paper clinging to one mitten. As predicted, he could see some grains of rice sticking to it, and he felt relieved he didn't have to worry about cleaning it up.

"Kid, I'm done," he called, and it startled Izuku who quickly scrambled over to peel away the wax paper. Once he put it on the plate he didn't leave like Shouta expected though, seeming to be hesitating about something, and Shouta suppressed a sigh. The kid never _just_ delivered meals, so he shouldn't be surprised. "Is there any other reason you're here, then?" The question startled Izuku out of his thoughts again, the kid blinking in surprise before nodding.

"O-oh, well... I just wanted to know if, since you uh, used to be a teacher, you'd be up to helping us with homework later?" Shouta stared, not expecting _that_ as the kid rambled, "See, you already know I still have to do schoolwork, right? But now we also have Kacchan and Sh—_Hijack_, too, and Kacchan's been going to school but I guess Hijack dropped out when he ran away...? So after we left the lab Kurogiri said they should both do schoolwork too, but Hijack's _way_ behind, so then I remembered you said you used to be a teacher so I talked to Kurogiri and he said you could teach us—"

"Breathe, kid," Shouta cut in, and Izuku obediently took a large gulp of air while the hero took advantage of the brief reprieve to process the rambling. "You want me to teach you and... other kids?" There were _more_ kids here? Was Hijack another villain? Was "Kacchan" that teenage girl who'd joined this year?

"Y-yeah. I mean, not _formally_, but just, help us go over schoolwork and stuff. Answer questions and all that. Like I said, I already talked to Kurogiri and he said it was okay." Shouta didn't fully recognize the name "Kurogiri" but it sounded like he must have a position of influence if the kid asked him instead of Shigaraki.

Still. _Teaching?_ "...Kid, I haven't been a teacher in years," he deadpanned. "And my main subject was ethics, which doesn't seem relevant in this place. I won't be able to help you as much as you might think, even if it's just answering questions."

"That's okay, really!" Izuku reassured him. "It'll still be helpful and feel, well, _normal_, I guess. I mean, as normal as this can get. So, please?" He gave Shouta the most stupidly _hopeful_ look as he asked that, wide eyes and everything, which he returned with a flat look of his own.

"Fine." As it stood, Shouta genuinely had no choice in the matter, whether the kid politely asked or not. He was a prisoner—the _kid's_ prisoner. If the kid said to bark like a dog, Shouta probably would if only to avoid pissing off Shigaraki for disobeying him. Shouta couldn't refuse the brat's requests if he wanted to survive.

Even so, the teen's face lit up as if he'd promised him the world. "Really? Thank you, sensei!"

"But on one condition," Shouta added before Izuku could get too excited. The kid froze, his face quickly becoming serious.

"What is it, sir?" he asked, and Shouta took a breath.

"Today's Friday, right?"

"Um, y-yeah...?"

"Then I want to hear Present Mic's show tonight." Shouta had to almost force the words out, keeping his expression and voice cool and stoic as usual even as his heart pounded. It was a gamble, to make a request so bluntly like that when he wasn't in a position to do so. With how smart and observant the kid was, asking this was exposing a potential weakness to his captors.

But after yesterday, Shouta _had_ to hear Hizashi's voice again.

The kid's face went slack with shock for a moment, but then he lit up with the brightest smile yet. "Of course! I was planning to do that anyway! I always try to listen to it when it's on, so I can just listen to it here instead! Oh, but sometimes I fall asleep listening to it since it runs so late, so..."

Shouta felt some of the tension in his body fade at the easy agreement, a sense of calm washing over him as the kid began rambling about Hizashi's show. He agreed, no strings attached, and that was the best news he'd gotten in _months_. To him, the show was more than just a way to pass time or hear his best friend's voice: it was a reminder of what Shouta was missing, what waited for him in the world outside this cell.

Right now, things were bleak, but he would get out of here.

* * *

_(The charity show lasted for a total of two hours. Two blissful hours of relative silence, just basking in his friend's voice. Hizashi didn't play any music this time, just talked to various guests about animals and the importance of donating to shelters or reporting abuse. And at first, and for a long while, that had felt like enough for Shouta._

_Then when it ended and Hizashi did the sign-off, he had broken off from the usual script to tack on another message. "And as always, to my favorite listener: I hope you hear this and are doing well! I know it's been a while, but hope we'll be able to see each other again soon!"_

_Shouta nearly bolted upright at the message, feeling so grateful Izuku hadn't been looking at him at the time. His mouth went dry as his head snapped to the side to stare at the phone, a heavy tightness in his throat as his heart began _pounding_._

_Shouta had no idea how long had passed since his initial capture, but he _knew_ it had been well more than three months. By underground standards, he should now be considered dead. That was why he didn't expect any rescue, why he had given up on leaving that place, why he had doubts he could escape even _now_. No one would be likely to actively search for him anymore; his only hope was for someone to either stumble on him by chance while investigating his captors, or to escape on his own._

_But at that moment, hearing that simple sign-off, he realized Hizashi _hadn't_ given up. The idiot still clung to hope Shouta was alive even though he _knew_ that wishing an underground hero was alive after being missing for so long could be crueler than death. No doubt others would be telling him to give up regularly. But the fact he signed off like that—specifically addressed _Shouta_, even if he couldn't be sure if Shouta might hear—_

_Hizashi hadn't given up. He was still looking for him._

_And that alone gave Shouta the first true ray of hope he'd had in what felt like years.)_

* * *

**As promised, here's chapter 46! This chapter feels closer to filler even if it's got some important developments, hence why I decided to post this and 45 this week. I am so amused that Aizawa is STILL ending up a teacher for Izuku in this world though.**** Also solidly confirming this now in case anyone still had any doubts: yep, Kuroe IS Quirkless. Which makes all his actions even MORE ridiculous and risky.  
**

**But ****next time, at long last, the big reunion of Ashido and Todoroki. Strap in, that's going to be a MAJOR ride.**

**Question for next time is still the same: most chaotic point for someone to be swapped from the canon universe to Ignite. (Also, doesn't have to be ONE character. Could be a whole group swapped!)**


	47. Chapter 47: Long Awaited Meetings

Chapter 47

.::Long Awaited Meetings::.

Friday evening found the Nighteye Agency unusually busy. Mirio could feel anticipation thick in the air as he and the other students went about their work quietly, all of them boggling the steady stream of heroes that passed through the halls by the lounges and offices. The chatter made it hard for most of them to focus on their schoolwork until some them just took their laptops to the public study room on the second floor, Mirio and Tamaki included.

Even that didn't keep them from hearing about the bigger developments though. Around an hour after retreating to the study room Hadou Nejire poked her head through the open door, eyes darting around the room. She zeroed in on them instantly and broke into a smile, ignoring the others there as she all but bounced over to their table.

"Hey, hey!" she greeted as she plopped into the empty chair next to Tamaki. The dark-haired teen visibly suppressed a groan, wilting away from the energetic girl. "Mirio-kun, Tamaki-kun, guess what?" Her gaze flitted between Mirio and Tamaki equally as she waited for one of them to answer, Tamaki shrinking back even further.

"What is it?" Mirio asked, if only to spare his friend from her energy, and Nejire's bright blue gaze settled on him fully as she leaned over the table.

"I just saw the Space Hero Thirteen arrive!" she confided. "They were with Hound Dog, too. I got to say hi and talk to them for a while!"

"That poor man," Tamaki muttered under her breath while Mirio stifled a laugh.

"What'd you ask?" he asked with a grin. Nejire had made her fascination with the more physical aspects of Quirks well known early on, peppering anyone and everyone with rapidfire questions and never giving them a chance to respond. Things like if Centipeder's _feet_ were centipedes coiled up in his shoes, could Bubble Girl get a tan, did Lady of the Night feel it when her pupils glowed, could Tamaki's ears _wiggle_?

(She'd asked Mail something too. Mirio didn't know what it was because he wasn't there, but apparently he'd actually had a chance to _answer_. She'd stopped asking strangers questions for a while after that.)

This time she didn't disappoint, rattling off the questions she'd peppered him. "I asked if he ever needed to use flea shampoo, if he could scratch behind his ears with his legs, and if he could eat chocolate."

_Thunk._ Tamaki's head met the table, a familiar sound that everyone had long since learned to ignore. "That _poor man_," he repeated, voice muffled by the wood, while Mirio just beamed at Nejire.

"Did he answer?" he asked eagerly.

"Nope! Lady of the Night grabbed me and dragged me away and said to find you two!" That made sense. Lady of the Night tended to lump the three of them together more often than not for some reason, not that they complained. The trio had become inseparable since coming to Nighteye Agency, Nejire integrating into their preexisting friendship seamlessly. They'd often be trusted with reigning in her more blunt questions, and in exchange she would help pull Tamaki out of his shell or help Mirio keep up his spirits on bad days.

"Hold on," Tamaki muttered, lifting his head with a small frown. "Hound Dog? Thirteen? And earlier we saw Ectoplasm too..." His eyebrows furrowed, and he said more quietly, "Didn't... didn't they all work at UA?"

The question had the others stilling, a hushed atmosphere falling over the room. Even the people who hadn't been participating in the conversation seemed to stop whatever they were doing, a faint tension to their shoulders. Mirio found himself staring forward blankly, his mind flashing back. Right... He remembered now, at the end, he _did_ see Thirteen pulling rubble off—

Well, it didn't matter right now.

He immediately squashed the memory before it could fully form. "Oh, I bet they're here about _that_ case!" he said brightly, and the others looked at him curiously, the heavy atmosphere effectively lifted by the topic change.

"_That_ case?" Nejire echoed, tilting her head, and he nodded almost eagerly.

"Yeah! You know, that one tied to what happened last year!" He had to keep it vague, as most of their peers didn't know. However, he could quickly see recognition lighting up on Tamaki's face.

"Oh yeah, that one with the kid, right?" he asked, and Nejire's face cleared up in understanding while Mirio beamed and nodded in confirmation.

"Exactly! _That_ one!" The whole thing about Shigaraki's brother had been kept on the down-low for obvious reasons. He'd been allowed to tell Tamaki and Nejire _some_ details, but he was the only one of their trio to have actually been given any information regarding Izuku. Even then he was largely kept at a distance from the case, only being told that UA's former faculty had begun cooperating with the investigation.

Mirio knew _something_ was going on right now though. As Sir Nighteye's unofficial personal protégé, Mirio had a bit more involvement with active cases than his peers. Just this week he'd been called to help go through footage from all the security cameras in an area where the kid had been sighted—with _Shigaraki_ no less. In the end neither of them had been caught on the cameras, but it was still a big development.

As he mulled over it one of the kids at a nearby table, Sakamaki, twisted in his chair to face them. "Hey, hold on," he said. "I don't know what you guys are talking about, but wasn't there some big bust in Nabu earlier this week?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Nejire said with a vigorous nod. "Everyone was, like, _sooo_ worked up, remember? They spent all afternoon in the Super Happy Funtime... um, whatever department." She shrugged, not able to remember the full name off the top of her head. "They wouldn't tell anyone what was going on though."

A thought occurred to Mirio, and he glanced across the room to look at a girl with sandy-brown hair. "Hey Utsushimi-san, don't you work with the Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department a lot?" he asked. Utshushimi, one of the younger student/interns at the Nighteye Agency, quickly nodded.

"Yeah, I do!" she said. "I don't know what's up because they wouldn't tell me, but like, I think I heard something about a lead on a missing hero...?" She shrugged, adding, "Like, I dunno. I was working on schoolwork in the far corner and they were all holed up in one of the offices. I was just hanging out there in case Mail came back. He's still gone, by the way. Where did you guys say he went again?"

"To visit Oracle," Mirio replied, and he noticed Tamaki pause.

"...Hold on," he muttered. "Didn't the kids Oracle was watching...?" He trailed off, but Mirio and Nejire quickly picked up on his meaning.

"They ran away!" Nejire exclaimed, almost jumping out of her chair and slamming her hands on the table. "They totally just vanished on him from under his nose! Maybe it's about them?" A quiet murmur arose at this bit of information, all work forgotten as everyone began discussing just what, exactly, had brought all these Pro Heroes to their agency.

* * *

As it turned out, all of them were correct.

The Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department had never been packed by so many people at once. Heroes from both other parts of the Nighteye Agency and the former UA faculty steadily filtered through the doors, easily filling up the main communal workspace. Mirai would prefer to meet in a more traditional meeting room, but given the latest developments it couldn't be helped.

Nedzu sat on a table near the back of the room, watching the congregation grow. "It seems nearly everyone is here now," he observed, and Mirai nodded.

"Indeed. We're just waiting on—ah, there he is." Oracle strode through the doors with Sayonaka at his side, the two conversing in low tones. The combination had Mirai narrowing his eyes, even if he'd expected Sayonaka to greet the other hero personally. Knowing their connection and history though, he felt justified in his subconscious wariness towards the combination.

Still, with Oracle here all of the relevant parties had arrived. The only person absent was Mail, but he wasn't a formal member or even licensed so his presence wasn't required; the most he could do was offer input or help record the details of the meeting. Besides, Present Mic looked particularly tense and agitated, so Mirai decided it was time to call the meeting to order before the man's patience reached its limits.

To that end he clapped his hands to silence the quiet chatter. "Everyone has arrived, so let's begin," he announced. "We have a lot to cover."

"First of all, as everyone is now aware, we've received confirmation Eraserhead is, in fact, alive," Nedzu began, taking over for him. "Lady of the Night has already performed an extensive investigation into the room where he had been held."

"After analyzing that room, he was kept there for a majority of the time he's been missing," Sayonaka confirmed with a nod. "He underwent heavy torture towards the start of his captivity, but after a while they eventually seemed to stop for whatever reason. As best as I can tell, the most recent injury was a broken rib, likely about one month ago. The pain from that injury had mostly faded by the time Shigaraki arrived."

She spoke briskly and to the point as always, making no attempt to soften her words. Mirai kept a close watch on Present Mic the entire time, knowing he would be the most volatile one in the room. Even now the blond had a dark frown on his face, fists clenched tightly at his side and lips pressed together tightly enough to turn white. Midnight hovered close behind with a hand on his shoulder, and Mirai averted his gaze when she gave a gentle squeeze. She seemed capable enough of handling him, so he'd leave it to her and focus on everyone else.

The atmosphere was certainly heavy enough even beyond the blond. Mirai had rarely seen such a large collection of grim faces, not since All Might's memorial. Even Fukukado, who'd been famous among hero circles as the jolly Miss Joke before leaving the front lines to focus on training the interns, had a grave frown on her face. It felt wrong and out of place, but with the circumstances as they were, he'd be surprised if _anyone_ could smile, even Toshinori himself.

Now was not the time to let himself fall into such morbid thoughts, however. He adjusted his glasses and took over explaining before the others could dwell too long. "Additionally, we now have a total of three missing teenagers, all first year students," he said. "The first is Uraraka Ochako, whom I assume everyone here has been briefed on. To reiterate though, she disappeared shortly after coming into contact with Shigaraki Tomura and his younger brother, who based on recent discoveries is most likely Midoriya Izuku. We do not know how or when they got into contact, but their interaction suggests she somehow knew Midoriya prior to that encounter."

He nodded at Midnight, who had a heavy frown on her face as she withdrew her hand from Mic's shoulder. "We still have no idea how they would have met. Her parents confirmed they never met the Midoriya family, and there aren't any records of either family traveling to the same areas. The most we can surmise it would have had to happen after Midoriya ran away but before her family's business really began to take off. That's only a two year window, though."

"Her phone had strong impressions of Midoriya still lingering, so she was thinking of him heavily before her disappearance," Sayonaka added. "It's rare for me to see such clear images of people other than the object's owner. There wasn't anything blurry about it. Even got his name."

"That brings us to the third point," Mirai interjected smoothly. "While investigating her phone, we found she had created a FacePage profile under the name 'Infinity Girl 8,' and in the days before her disappearance had been in communication with a user known as 'Alien Queen Pink.' Lady of the Night managed to attain an impression of this user's face, and upon sending the sketch to Oracle of Team Storm Chaser, he identified her as Ashido Mina. She and another teenager, Kirishima Eijirou, had been placed under protective watch since involving themselves in a partially-televised villain fight last Friday.

"Oracle and Midnight accompanied Detective Tsukauchi to question Ashido on Sunday. They claim Ashido was cooperative with questioning, but that it brought up largely inconclusive results. Ashido appeared to have never met Uraraka in person, and had no confirmation of who she was talking to online. She had the impression that Uraraka ran away of her own volition based on conversations with her friends. They ended questioning shortly afterwards with intentions to later interview her friends."

Listening to the transcript had been one of the more oddly baffling experiences for Mirai. On the surface everything seemed fine and normal, save for the brief point where Oracle asked a question of his own. However, something about the whole thing just felt _off_, like they were missing something, but he couldn't put his finger on _what_ exactly. That niggling doubt irritated him, and he'd like to question her himself—unfortunately, that wouldn't happen though.

"Then on Wednesday, both Ashido and Kirishima ran away," he continued briskly, and glanced at Oracle, who promptly took over explaining his side of the event.

"While watching them, someone deployed some sort of smoke bomb on the street. I immediately went to investigate and try to aid civilians caught up in it. I'll spare the full details and let you read the report later, but I ended up pursuing who I _thought_ to be the culprit, and found out another person had effectively used them as a decoy. By the time I returned and sorted everything out, they were gone with only a stupid note saying '_My people need me_' left behind."

"It was a planned escape, then," Moashi mused, and Oracle nodded.

"Planned, and _coordinated_. Hah, it's really aggravating," he added under his breath with a scowl. "I had a feeling something was off with Ashido, but I never expected them to _run_. We questioned their friends and teachers of course, but none of them had useful information. The most we got was that Ashido had been acting weird lately and claimed to have developed 'sudden partial amnesia.'"

"_Sudden partial amnesia?_" Snipe repeated skeptically, and Oracle snorted.

"Yeah, it sounds crazy, but even her teachers were willing to corroborate it. Kid started acting weird a little under three weeks ago. Couldn't remember where all her classes were or even moving to Kamino, but still remembered stuff like her friendship with Kirameki Kumiko. Before that, Kirishima had no connection to them despite living in the same building, but suddenly she was clinging to him. He's the one that _really_ confuses me," he added with a frown. "I talked to him a bit and read his profile, and running away feels out of character."

_Just one of many odd inconsistencies,_ Mirai mused as he took over once more. "At the very least, we can assume Ashido was the instigator in the decision. Taking all of these oddities into account though, Nedzu and I feel it safe to conclude that their disappearance and that of Uraraka Ochako are connected—which means there's most likely a connection to the Villain Alliance. We do not know anything more than that though, and that is the end of our knowledge. With this, everyone should be caught up."

A brief silence fell after that, everyone taking a few moments to digest the information. "I have a question," Vlad King said. "How did Uraraka and Ashido know each other?"

"Technically?" Nedzu said. "They didn't." The response got some odd and confused looks, and he wasted no time explaining. "There were absolutely zero opportunities for Uraraka Ochako and Ashido Mina to have ever met that we can find. There is also no evidence of Ashido sending Uraraka a photo of herself over FacePage."

"But didn't Lady of the Night see Ashido's face when touching Uraraka's phone?" Thirteen questioned.

"I did," Sayonaka said with a nod. "It was clear enough to suggest a strong relationship, which shouldn't exist. If they'd only seen each other in passing, I wouldn't have gotten such a clear and detailed impression." It was yet another detail they couldn't explain.

"At present, we cannot fathom how she got that image," Nedzu said. "Our best theory is that they knew each other through some third party, but there is absolutely no overlap in their acquaintances and social circles that we can determine. They grew up in completely different prefectures, and even looking at their elementary and middle school years, none of their classmates visited the other prefecture."

"The closest connection we can find is that one of the employees of Uraraka's father briefly lived in Ashido's city twelve years ago," Midnight added. "We've already questioned him with Tsukauchi and he doesn't know the Ashido family at all though."

"Yes, it's a complete mystery," Nedzu agreed with a solemn nod. "There is a high chance if we can figure out how they knew each other, we'll be able to understand the case better." A brief silence fell as everyone contemplated it.

"Hey, I know the missing kids are important and all, but can we go back to Eraserhead for a second?" Manaka—Figment—called out with a frown. "We're _sure_ he's alive, right?"

"If they wanted to kill him, the Alliance would have done so in Nabu," Mirai affirmed with a nod, noting the way Mic grit his teeth at the blunt statement. He knew the man must be going crazy with concern over his friend, but Mirai couldn't soften his words. "We do not know why they took him, or where he might be now. But we're choosing to be optimistic." And wasn't that strange, to be _optimistic_ about a man who'd been missing for six months when the unspoken rules among underground heroes said anything longer than three would be cruel.

"Eraser's tough!" Fukukado added with a nod and wry grin. "He might be in bad shape, but knowing him he's fighting back right this second!"

"She's right," Mic said, speaking up for the first time since this meeting began. His eyes burned behind his trademark sunglasses as he spoke, his voice holding no hesitation. "Eraser's not one to give up that easy. He's probably been reinvigorated and got his fighting spirit back by the move." Those who knew Eraserhead well nodded in agreement even as others exchanged doubtful looks. Though they had not worked together often, Mirai found himself agreeing with Fukukado and Mic.

Eraserhead would undoubtedly have unspeakable amounts of trauma, but he was _alive_, and that meant he could heal. Even if he chose to retire afterwards, to hang up his goggles and capture weapon for good, they owed it to him to at least search for him and pull him out of whatever hell he was trapped in.

* * *

"So, this 'Nettmegg' will be here soon, right?" Shouto asked, and Monoma nodded.

"Yes, she said six o'clock. It's standard to introduce new inductees to her, even if you don't plan to stay in Odawara long. It's a standard safety precaution." Shouto just hummed, accepting the words at face value mostly because he had no other choice. He glanced at the time on his burner phone to see it was now 5:56, so this "Nettmegg" should be arriving any minute now.

Monoma and Ojiro had gotten texts while they'd been ending yet another day of fruitless searching that Nettmegg, the network's coordinator, wanted to meet him personally. According to them, Nettmegg lived in another city entirely and handled all the coordination remotely. Something to do with her Quirk, though they hadn't explained what it entailed since describing another person's Quirk was taboo. All they told him was that she needed to meet him in person to "fully integrate him into the network."

Now they stood in the room where he'd first revealed his background, joined by Asui, Akai, and a few others who had hidden behind the curtain. Shouto only knew they were there because he'd glimpsed _someone_ when Ojiro had gone back there a while ago to retrieve a portable space heater for Asui and Akai. The two girls huddled around it in the corner now, while Monoma hovered near the door waiting for Ojiro who'd left to check for Nettmegg.

Part of Shouto felt wary about this meeting, in part because he'd never heard about this "Nettmegg" until today. It made _some_ sense, since from what little he knew the network had a surprising amount of people in it, but he couldn't help but feel suspicious. Why did the coordinator suddenly need to meet him? Why did they need to "integrate him into the network" if he was only there temporarily? What, exactly, did her Quirk _do_?

Two sharp knocks on the door cut into his thoughts, and they all turned to see it open to reveal Ojiro followed by three more people. One he didn't recognize, a girl with teal hair and dark eyes, but the others had Shouto straightening to attention. He instantly recognized one as the boy who'd also been looking at hair dye at the store earlier since he wore the same coat, though this time he lacked the scarf. Only now that he could see the boy's whole face did Shouto recognize him. _Kirishima?_

His gaze instantly flicked to the third figure. They wore a thick scarf around their mouth and nose and a particularly large wool hat that covered their ears, but it left their black and gold eyes exposed. A sudden pang of suspicion filled him, and sure enough, they quickly unraveled the scarf and tore off the hat with an overdramatic gasp to reveal a familiar face.

"Ugh, that scarf is so _stuffy_!" Ashido whined. Next to her Kirishima removed his hat and Shouto blinked when he saw the bright red hair. Come to think of it, hadn't it been black earlier?

"At least you had a scarf," he said. "Man, it kinda hurt just breathing through my nose!" As they spoke Shouto noticed the other runaways eying the two newcomers warily, though they soon focused on the teal-haired girl as she stepped forward.

"Hey," the girl—most likely Nettmegg—said in a belated greeting. "Sorry for the short notice, didn't know for sure I'd be able to make it until today."

"You didn't mention anyone else was coming," Akai commented coolly, eyes slightly more narrow than usual, and she shrugged.

"Sorry about that," Nettmegg replied, not sounding sorry at all. "Figured it'd be easier to just get this out of the way all at once. These two are some friends from school, Ashido and Kirishima."

The two turned at their names, Ashido beaming while Kirishima looked a bit nervous and... _shy?_ Shouto filed it away for later contemplation as Ashido spoke up. "Hi! I'm Ashido Mina, and this guy's Kirishima Eijirou, the manliest man ever!" Kirishima winced at the overly enthusiastic introduction, shrinking under everyone's attention and retreating closer to the door with a small grimace.

"It's nice to meet you, kero," Asui piped up politely, and then Ashido turned to look at her with her jaw dropping.

"Wait... You're—"

"Hold that thought," Nettmegg cut in. "Before we do anything else, can 'Yuki' step forward?" Four sets of eyes quickly settled on Shouto and he obediently stepped forward, feeling very lost about what was going on. Two more of his classmates had just showed up, and it seemed the other runaways were just as surprised and confused by the turn of events.

Nettmegg strode up to him and held out a hand, and he looked at it blankly before reaching out to accept it hesitantly. Suddenly her eyes lit up, her irises flickering with a spinning turquoise pattern that matched her pupils. _A Quirk._ He immediately jerked his hand away, but it seemed it hadn't been fast enough as she just smirked as she pulled out her phone. "And, added," she said with an air of satisfaction.

"What did you do?" he demanded sharply.

"My Quirk is called Neural Networking," she explained. "When I touch someone while using it, it adds them to a network in my head that lets me track their location at all times, among... _other_ things." Shouto's eyes widened briefly before quickly narrowing once more, his wariness spiking. So he couldn't run away and ditch them, then.

"So _that's_ what your Quirk is?" Kirishima asked in surprise. "I thought it had to do with your phone."

"It does," the girl replied casually, holding up the device. The screen had a map open showing several colored dots. "My brother made a custom app that can interface with my Quirk so I can keep track of all the information better."

"Woah, that's actually really cool," Kirishima said. Next to him Ashido was quiet though, squinting at Shouto with a look of intense concentration that left him frowning.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked, and Ashido's eyes suddenly went wide as she jolted in place.

"Wait, _Todoroki_?" she gasped, and Shouto froze. She darted across the room to stop in front of him, completely ignoring any concept of "personal space" in the process, and he reflexively leaned back a bit as she stared right at his face. "Oh my gosh, you're _totally_ Todoroki! I can totally see the scar under the eyepatch! Why are you wearing that? No, wait, why's your hair _black_? Wait, wait, did you dye it, or is it naturally black like Kiri's and the red and white was dye—"

"Um." Shouto just stared blankly, trying to process what was going on. Ashido... _recognized_ him? Did he know this world's Ashido somehow? She didn't talk like they were strangers, but given this was Ashido, it was hard to say for sure.

"Hold on, do you know him?" Ojiro asked, thankfully voicing the question on Shouto's mind. Ashido paused then, and then her face became sheepish as she quickly stepped back.

"Uh, kinda?" she said with a weak laugh. "It's uh, really complicated. Sorry Todoroki," she added, shooting him an apologetic smile. "I probably freaked you out by getting all up in your personal space when I'm a stranger to you, huh?" Shouto stared, his mind stuck on the wording. _A stranger to you._ Ashido recognized him and spoke so familiarly, but still saw herself as a stranger _to him_.

"Wait," Akai said. "Then how—"

"Ashido, what is our homeroom teacher's name?" Shouto interrupted.

"Aizawa-sensei!" she replied without missing a beat, and then froze. He could see the moment she made the same realization he had, and her face lit up all at once in the biggest grin he'd ever seen. "Wait! Are you—are you MY Todoroki!? From 1-A!?"

"I... think so," Shouto replied, and... he wasn't alone? Someone else was here? He _wanted_ to believe it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it right away, not without some more proof. He reached for the eyepatch to pull it off, almost wanting to look at her with _both_ eyes as if that would somehow make it clearer. It didn't, of course, but he could see the gleam of hope in her eyes. "You're... Pinkie, right?"

Ashido responded by tackling him in a hug, nearly knocking him off his feet. "You ARE my Todoroki!" she shrieked, laughing with absolute delight as she squeezed his torso. "See guys! I told you! I _told_ you! I'm not the only one!"

"Uh, what's going on?" Monoma asked nearby, sounding faintly alarmed, and Nettmegg laughed. A quiet laugh full of sharp edges and a vicious sort of amusement, a knowledge only she had.

"Just confirming a theory," she said, a wild grin on her face. "Let's start over. Everyone, this is Ashido Mina, the second person to come from another dimension."

* * *

**At long last, the Todoroki and Ashido reunion. Next time: Anjou takes a page from Detective Conan's deduction shows because she's going for maximum drama. Bombshells are about to start dropping BIG TIME.**

**Question for next time: Who could you see dropping out of the front lines to focus on teaching interns/students at Nighteye's agency like Ms. Joke?**


	48. Chapter 48: Anjou's Deduction Show

Chapter 48

.::Anjou's Deduction Show::..

Todoroki. _Todoroki_ was here.

Mina felt like screaming and laughing as she hugged him, just soaking up his presence because _she wasn't alone_. Mina already knew that of course—knew it from Infinity Girl who HAD to be Uraraka, and from those photos of Jirou and Kaminari sporting the 1-A on their backs—but that was different from actually _meeting_ someone who remembered all the things she did.

"Um, Ashido?" Todoroki said, and she snapped her full attention back to him. He was still staring at her wide-eyed, looking a little lost. "Can you let go?"

"I don't wanna," she mumbled, but (reluctantly) pried herself away from him. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable after all, and Todoroki had never seemed to be very tactile. She didn't go far though, staying right next to him as she eagerly bounced in place. "I just can't believe you're here too! This is so _great_!"

Of all the people that could end up here with her Todoroki hadn't been on the list, but now that she knew that he _was_ she couldn't suppress her delight. They might not really know each other _that_ well, but Todoroki was from _her_ world. After spending nearly three whole weeks surrounded by classmates and friends who only looked at her as a stranger, having just one person who knew her—_her_, the Ashido Mina from Class 1-A—was worth more than words could describe.

"A second person?" she heard Ojiro say in disbelief, and Mina turned her head just enough to look at him while keeping Todoroki in her line of sight. Her not-classmate wasn't looking at them, just boggling An-chan in shock. "Wait, are you saying someone else _actually_ believes that other dimension stuff?"

"Yep," An-chan confirmed with a nod.

"One person was crazy enough, but _two_?" the snake-girl muttered. She was the only one who Mina didn't recognize, but she seemed to be sticking close to Tsu-chan as she muttered to herself. "Holy shit, _two_? Seriously!?" Next to her Todoroki frowned.

"Wait," he said. "Didn't you believe me?" The other four seemed to pause at that, Ojiro and the snake-girl wincing while Tsu-chan and Monoma just exchanged quiet looks.

"To be fair, it's a rather unbelievable story," Tsu-chan said after a few seconds. "When you told us, you skipped over a lot of details of _how_ you figured out this was another world, kero. You also didn't have much evidence. It seemed more likely someone messed with your memories."

"So you guys thought that too, huh?" Kiri muttered, while Mina shot him a glare and stuck out her tongue.

"You _also_ kept insisting on looking for Gentle Criminal," Ojiro added a little acidly. Mina paused, partially out of surprise to hear him sound so worked up (had she ever heard him like that in their world?), but also to turn to Todoroki questioningly.

"Gentle Criminal?"

"His partner Phantom Shadow is Tokoyami," he explained, and Mina's jaw dropped.

"How did I _not_ see that!?" she cried. "That video Kumiko showed me _totally_ had him using Dark Shadow! I can't believe I didn't notice! _Gah_, I'm such an idiot!"

"Well, I guess they have the same memories," she heard someone mutter, though she didn't care to check who it was.

Todoroki meanwhile just frowned as he looked at the others. "So... you didn't believe me?" he asked, sounding just a bit hurt, and Mina's heart broke for him. To their credit most of them couldn't meet his gaze and looked away guiltily. Only Monoma didn't, sighing softly before speaking up.

"We thought it would be safer to play along until we could figure out the truth," he said loftily, making Mina automatically turn to glare at him. She didn't like him, the guy was always such a smug jerk, and even now he gave off that stupid snotty air as he spoke. "Look at it from our perspective. The son of Endeavor shows up a year after he ran away, talks about waking up next to a villain, _somehow_ realizing he's in another dimension, and then insists on searching for _another_ villain because you think he'll help somehow. If you don't have any evidence, that all seems rather suspicious."

...Okay, when he laid it out like that, Monoma had a point. But also: "What does he mean by waking up next to a villain?" she asked Todoroki, and his eyebrows furrowed as his frown deepened.

"When I first woke up here, I was next to Dabi," he said, and Mina's jaw dropped even more.

"What!? No way! Why were you next to _him_!? Wait—did he kidnap you like Bakugou!?"

Todoroki perked up at that, his eyes lighting up. "Maybe? That _could_ explain it... Wait, I wasn't tied up though," he realized with a frown. "And I think he has my number, or at least I keep getting calls from someone labeled 'D,' so..."

"Hold on, why does he have your number!?" Mina blurted, and he shrugged.

"I don't know. Do you think I'm a villain in this world?"

"No way!" Mina didn't even have to hesitate or think on it. "You're way too nice to _ever_ be a villain!" The idea was absolutely ludicrous to her, she couldn't believe he even had to ask.

Apparently he'd been worried about it though because her response seemed to reassure him, losing just a little bit of tension in his shoulders she hadn't noticed. "Thank you, Ashido."

"Okay, is anyone ELSE getting confused?" the snake girl piped up.

"I kinda gave up understanding a while back," Kiri said. Before anyone else could say something An-chan clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention.

"Okay, that's enough of that," she said. "We're getting off-topic. Here's what matters most: right now these two, Ashido and Todoroki, both have the exact same memories, and the exact same story about their life in this other dimension. I'm assuming that, anyway," she added with a shrug. "They both seem to connect this Tokoyami to Phantom Shadow, they both call their teacher Aizawa..."

"You realize this still sounds absolutely insane, right?" Ojiro asked flatly, and Mina scowled at him. "It sounds like they both had their memories screwed with by villains. Is it even safe to let them meet?" Yep, Ojiro was quickly descending her list of favorite classmates. Her scowl only deepened when Monoma spoke up next.

"Lee, I fully understand your concern, but I don't think this is the time to express doubts," he said. "Nettmegg wouldn't bring Ashido here to meet Todoroki like this if she thought it posed any danger. She must have some reason to believe them, or at least give them a chance." As he spoke Mina felt her scowl fade, her irritation replaced by surprise. Despite her expectations, Monoma was actually being surprisingly... nice? And _not_ trying to pick a fight and mock them as somehow inferior?

"I guess Monoma's not really such a dick in this universe, huh?" she mused to Todoroki, who shrugged while Monoma startled behind her.

"I think it's because there's no Class 1-A or 1-B in this world, so there's no rivalry," he replied, and Mina gave a soft "ah" in understanding. "He's actually pretty nice here. You get used to it after a while."

"Hold on, how do you know my name?" Monoma asked sharply, and _oh right_, he didn't know her in this world so knowing his name would _probably_ seem suspicious. Mina winced and turned back, feeling sheepish at how alarmed he looked.

"You're in Class 1-B in our world," she explained. "You're always competing with Class 1-A for some reason, so we're kinda used to you being a jerk?" Monoma just stared at her, and then looked at Todoroki.

"It's true," he said without prompting. "Everyone here seems really wary, so I thought you would freak out if I called you by your names."

"Do you know anyone _else_ here?" Monoma asked slowly, the others standing more tensely now, and Todoroki paused.

"...I don't know Akai or Naota," he finally said, and those names meant _nothing_ to Mina. "But Asui, Ojiro and Kouda are all in our class at 1-A. Then, Maria is... Shiozaki, I think?" He shot Mina a questioning look, and she shrugged.

"I don't know either of those names? Is it someone from 1-B?"

"The girl with vines for hair?" he said, and she lit up in recognition.

"Oh yeah! The one who beat Kaminari at the Sports Festival, right?"

"Yeah, her." Todoroki turned back, and then squinted at Kiri. "You're also in Class 1-A. But... wasn't your hair black earlier today?"

_That_ got Mina's attention, turning to Kiri with renewed interest. Did they meet earlier at the store? Kiri _did_ mention a "Kaitou," but An-chan called Todoroki "Yuki," not that. "Uh, y-yeah, it was," Kiri said after a few seconds. "I was looking at hair dye, remember? We both were, dude." Todoroki nodded, but he still looked a little confused.

"So then, your hair _isn't_ naturally red?"

"Nope!" Mina answered for him. "But the red is _way_ manlier, don't you agree?"

"...I think so?" Bless his heart, Todoroki still looked a little lost but he was _trying_. She knew he had a lot to learn about basic social interactions from Bakugou's rants about their remedial license classes, poor boy was so behind on a lot of things. For now she just beamed in encouragement to let him know he was doing good.

"This brings us back to the situation at hand," Anjou interjected smoothly. "As it stands, Ashido and Todoroki know stuff they absolutely shouldn't, and crazy as it sounds, I think this other dimension story might actually be real."

* * *

He wasn't alone.

Shouto wasn't alone in this world.

He'd been here for nearly three weeks now, and in that time it had never occurred to him that he might not be the _only_ one from Class 1-A stuck in this world. Why would it? He'd woken up alone after all, and next to _Dabi_ of all people. That alone made it easy to assume he'd been specifically targeted by the League of Villains. After then meeting several of his classmates' counterparts who didn't recognize him, it seemed only natural to assume no one else had been caught up in whatever this was and he was on his own.

But... he wasn't. Ashido was here too. Even after a full five minutes with her all but ignoring his personal space, it felt like some sort of dream.

As far as people to be stuck with went, Ashido... wasn't on the list. At all. He barely knew Ashido, their social circles never really overlapped; he mostly knew her as the loudest of his female classmates and the one who liked dancing. From their training, he also wouldn't exactly consider her reliable in a situation like _this_. She was perfectly capable when it came to fighting, and she was _much_ better at dealing with people than him, but in terms of strategy, her skills left a lot to be desired.

But even so, even if she wasn't his fifth choice let alone _first_, just having someone there from _his_ world filled Shouto with a sense of... security. Comfort and familiarity. Ashido might be a _lot_ more tactile than he was used to, but having someone else stuck in his exact same situation really helped. Even if she probably wouldn't be much help directly.

"Them knowing our names is not proof." It was Ojiro who spoke up, snapping him back to reality. He'd been pretty hostile for most of the meeting, but this time he'd toned it down, his voice more cool and level now. "That could have been planted by someone spying on us."

"The names _could_ have been planted," Nettmegg agreed, "but when Ashido first told us about it, she mentioned some details that stood out." Her gaze slid to Kirishima as she spoke, and their classmate visibly swallowed.

"Red Riot," he said tightly, clenching his fists at his sides as all the other runaways looked his way. "She... she said I used the name Red Riot. That's the hero name I picked out when I was a kid, but I never told anyone."

"That's not much in the way of proof though, kero," Asui replied, blunt as ever. She tilted her head at him, a finger touching her chin. "Someone could have heard you mention it—"

"No, I never told _anyone_," Kirishima cut in, shaking his head firmly. "Not my friends, not my parents, my grandparents, classmates... _No one._ I already told these guys, but back when I came up with it as a kid, all the kids at school were making fun of kids who chose names based off Pro Heroes. I chose my name after Crimson Riot, so I was too nervous to tell anyone." Asui fell silent at that, and only thanks to their familiarity in his own world did Shouto recognize she'd become contemplative.

"That's still pretty flimsy though." This time Akai spoke, not _too_ accusatory but still obviously wary. "They could have, I don't know, used telepathy to get it."

"You think someone used telepathy on a random kid to get their childhood hero name?" Nettmegg asked dryly, crossing her arms. "And _then_ used that name in memories they planted in _someone else_ who doesn't even know him?"

"...Okay, yeah, no, that's a stretch," the other girl conceded with a sigh, while Asui patted her arm.

"It's okay, Akai. We do need to consider all possibilities, kero."

"Including the one that they're _actually_ telling the truth," Ojiro added under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Dammit, I can't _believe_ we're actually considering this..." Next to him Monoma just hummed, looking at them speculatively.

"That's not the _only_ reason though, is it?" he asked Nettmegg. "Because on its own, that's still pretty flimsy." Shouto could hear Ashido growl quietly next to him, shooting dagger eyes at the blond. Given how hostile _their_ Monoma was, he didn't blame her for being so wary. Shouto had only adjusted to the change because he'd been exposed to this world's Monoma for so long during their searches for Tokoyami.

"It is," Nettmegg allowed with a nod. "But along with these two, there's at least three other people who potentially have memories of this other dimension."

_That_ got everyone's attention, Shouto particularly straightening at this bit of information. "There's more?" he demanded sharply, and Ashido bobbed her head eagerly.

"Yeah! I mean we haven't talked to them and _confirmed_ it or anything, but there's these two vigilantes in Hosu who showed up like last week that have costumes _just_ like Jirou and Kaminari's, and they _totally_ have their Quirks! _And_ they have 1-A on their backs! It's _totally_ them! That's why I finally decided to stop sitting around waiting for something to happen and ran away!"

Shouto stared wide-eyed as she spoke, turning over the information in his head eagerly. "So they're here too?" he asked, and Ashido bobbed her head even more energetically. _Jirou and Kaminari._ Again, not his first choices, but Jirou was more rational than Kaminari and Ashido and could keep a cool head when it counted, so she'd be a big help. But more importantly: "She said there were five people. Who's the other one?"

"_Uraraka!_" Ashido cheered, throwing up her arms with a laugh. "Before I found Kami and Jirou, I was talking to someone called Infinity Girl on FacePage, and we never actually confirmed it but it's _totally_ her! And then she ran away," she added, losing some of her enthusiasm. "So I don't know where she is right now. I wonder if she's reached out since _we_ ran away..."

"...She probably has," Nettmegg said after a few seconds, making everyone look at her. "I checked your phone Tuesday night before wiping it, and you got a friend request from someone named '1-A SpaceRescueHero.'"

"It's Uraraka," Shouto decided without hesitation, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. He'd become relatively decent friends with Uraraka in their own world, so knowing she was here too filled him with _much_ more comfort than the rest so far. He was happy in general to not be alone like he'd thought, but there was nothing quite like having someone you _really_ knew around.

"Why didn't you _tell_ me, An-chan!" Ashido whined beside him. "I could've been messaging her this _whole time_!"

"No you couldn't," Nettmegg replied flatly. "Until we know how those heroes found you through _her_ account, logging into your FacePage is too risky. I sent her a friend request from my account during the train ride here though. Can't _believe_ I forgot about that for a second," she grumbled under her breath, before sighing and continuing more clearly, "So yeah. There's potentially six people with memories of this other dimension."

That made everyone pause. "Uh, you mean five, right, Anjou?" Kirishima asked after a few seconds. "Ashido, Todoroki, Infinity Girl, and those vigilante dudes in Hosu, right?" Nettmeg—no, _Anjou,_ _thank you Kirishima_—paused then, a sly glint in her eyes.

"...Actually, I forgot about Infinity Girl for a second. So it's _six_ people, not five. Ashido's the third person I've heard mention being in Class 1-A in another dimension."

A dead silence fell over the room at that, shock settling in as they all processed the meaning of the words. _Ashido was the _third_ person?_

Shouto could feel his eyes widen as he processed the implications of those words, his jaw going slack with disbelief. Six people. _Six_ people with potential memories of Class 1-A. Three of them they didn't know remembered it for a _fact_ yet, but now a sixth had appeared who Anjou claimed _did_ have those memories. A glance around the room revealed everyone else was similarly stunned by this revelation; Ashido's eyes looked particularly ready to bulge out of her skull. Despite that she recovered first, the corners of her open mouth quirking upwards as her eyes lit up.

"There's _more_!?" she nearly shrieked, the volume making Shouto flinch as she began bouncing. "You've met _another_ person from our world!?"

"Nope," Anjou said, and all at once Ashido deflated, her smile vanishing as she almost sagged with disappointment and confusion clear on her face.

"Wait," Akai said, "But you just said...?" She trailed off, looking just as confused as Shouto felt even with her mutation making it hard to read her expression. Anjou just huffed, her face serious as she spoke.

"A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a certain person asking about multiverse theory. They claimed they met someone with a Quirk that let people see what their lives were like in alternate realities in their dreams, and that same night dreamed they were in 1-A."

That had everyone tensing, Shouto not sure what to make of it. A Quirk that let people see dreams of another dimension? Ashido looked particularly eager and opened her mouth, but Anjou quickly cut her off. "Before you ask for details, I don't have any. They just said they had a dream they were in 1-A, but they weren't sure if the dream was _actually_ from that guy's Quirk, was implanted by him or was just a regular dream, so they asked me to look into it."

"What do you mean?" Shouto asked, his interest now understandably piqued. "Do you have access to Quirk registries?"

"No, they wanted me to look into the classmates and teacher," Anjou replied. "The quickest way to confirm it would be to check if the people existed. The dream only had memories of a single class period and around an hour after it, so they didn't have all their names. But they had descriptions of the people, so I've been using that to look them up."

Suddenly something seemed to click for Kirishima, his head snapping upwards with visibly realization. "Wait, you mentioned you did a background check on that Jirou girl for someone," he said, surprising Shouto, and Anjou smirked at him.

"Wow, you actually _can_ be clever sometimes," she said in a teasing tone, and her smirk grew when he scowled at her. "Yep, that's exactly why I looked her up. It was kinda a fluke I found her actually. I just remembered my dad had an album with a woman's picture on the cover, and she had those earphone jacks like what they described so I called him up to ask for the name. It hasn't been easy tracking everyone, since most of them obviously aren't really public figures. I'm not even sure the homeroom teacher exists in this world, it's some guy who dresses like a hobo."

"Wait, didn't UA hire heroes though?" Ojiro asked in confusion. "That seems like they'd be a pretty public figure, even if they retired after... you know." He shrugged vaguely, and paused before adding skeptically, "Also, a _hobo_? Really?"

"That's definitely Aizawa-sensei!" Ashido piped up with a grin, Shouto nodding in silent agreement. "He's an underground hero called Eraserhead! None of us recognized him at all, except Deku, and that was only because Aizawa-sensei used his Quirk on... him..." She suddenly seemed to lose steam, her smile fading to a look of horror as the color drained from her face. "Wait... i-if you can't find him, th-then..." She trailed off, hands rising to cover her mouth while Shouto regarded her with increasing alarm and confusion. She looked like she might be about to cry, but why—

Oh. _Oh no._ Shouto felt a cold chill down his spine as he realized what she was thinking, eyes widening as a similar horror washed over _him_. And the others seemed to realize it too.

"Hold on, do you think he's _dead_?" Akai whispered. Ashido winced as if she'd been hit and even Shouto gave a small flinch, having it said out loud cementing the possibility in place. Now Ashido _really_ looked like she was going to cry. To her credit Akai realized her mistake, and quickly rushed to reassure her. "H-hey, he might be okay! Maybe he just retired or, or works behind the scenes now! You know, like, uh—"

"Like Midnight!" Kirishima piped up. "You said she does behind-the-scenes stuff here, right? He could be doing that!"

"Aizawa-sensei would never retire!" Ashido denied, shaking her head. "The only way he'd stop being a hero would be if he—if he—" She couldn't even get out the word, her lip wobbling and tears pricking the corners of her eyes as her face scrunched up in a mixture of a glare and a miserable frown.

"I'm sure it's not _that_ unlikely," Monoma piped up hesitantly. "You don't need to jump to the worst case scenario—"

"He jumped into a fight with like a hundred villains to protect our class, got his head slammed into the pavement by a giant monster, had both arms broken, had to get surgery and almost lost his Quirk, and _still_ came to class right after that dressed up like a mummy! He didn't even have the bandages off by the Sports Festival!" Ashido practically spat the words, looking even more miserable. "If he still kept going as a hero after _that_, then what do _you_ think would get him to quit?!"

Monoma paused, looking a bit lost at her response, and glanced at Shouto questioningly. He just nodded. "We've had a rough year," he said simply, which even _he_ recognized might be the understatement of the decade.

"Uh, actually, if it's Eraserhead, he's probably alive," Anjou interjected, and they all turned to look at her. She scratched the back of her neck, looking weirdly awkward as she shrugged. "Kuroe keeps track of underground heroes for some reason. Don't ask him about it, I'm not supposed to know he does. But, yeah, if your teacher's Eraserhead then he's probably okay. If he was confirmed dead... yeah, it'd be on the list."

For a moment none of them spoke, just staring at her. "Uh, Anjou?" Kirishima finally ventured, breaking the silence. "Why does Kuroe do that?"

"I have no idea, he just does," Anjou huffed, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, that doesn't matter. The guy I know _also_ said he was called Aizawa in their dream, so that's just one more detail that matches up. Same goes for all the other classmates, the descriptions match up with the classmates I had Ashido describe too. I've been able to look up some of the people she mentioned that I couldn't find before and confirm it with them, so it checks out."

"That's still not proof there's another dimension though," Akai protested, but she sounded a lot less confident than before. "Even if all these other people _are_ real, maybe this dream Quirk this guy talks about was some kind of, of—like, some kind of test run, or something! To see how believable bigger memories are!"

"I agree kero, this is all very strange, but still not enough to prove this other dimension exists," Asui said with a nod. "Nettmegg, who is this person who had the dream? We might be able to believe it more easily if we can speak to them directly, kero." Shouto's head whipped back to Anjou, waiting for her response with narrowed eyes. He wanted to meet this person too, because right now this _was_ their best lead.

Anjou didn't respond right away though, her frown telling him she wouldn't give away the answer so easily. "I'd tell you, but it's not my place. It's their decision to come forward. I shouldn't even be telling you this much, but I wanted you to understand _why_ I'm giving these guys so much credence."

"You can stop being so evasive about it. At this point, I don't mind if they know."

_Everyone_ startled at the new voice, and they all whirled to see the black curtain in the back of the room swish to the side to reveal a hulking figure. With the dim lighting Shouto initially tensed in anticipation of a fight, but then he caught sight of silver hair and a mask over the newcomer's face. A couple of other teens followed—one Shouto vaguely recognized from Class 1-B, and another he didn't recognize whatsoever—but Shouto paid them little mind, his attention focused on the now-familiar newcomer.

"Parasyte?" several of the runaways chorused in shock, but Ashido gave a delighted gasp.

"Shouji!?" she exclaimed. Shouji Mezou nodded once, crossing two of his six arms over his chest.

"Anjou's talking about me," he said bluntly. "I think we've got a lot to talk about."

* * *

**I said these chapters would have a lot of major revelations. Absolutely no one predicted that we'd get a lead to this whole multiverse mess.  
**

**No question for next time. I think there's enough theory fodder for now.**


	49. Chapter 49: Requiem for a Dream

Chapter 49

.::Requiem for a Dream::

It happened around a month ago.

It had been one of the truly _good_ days of autumn. The breeze had been brisk but free of the bitter edge from winter, the sky not a perfect clear blue, but not overly cloudy either. It was the kind of weather Mezou loved, the air feeling oddly _crisp_ compared to all the other seasons. Autumn might be the time when the leaves began to die, but he found the growing chill refreshing compared to spring.

As the afternoon drew on he threw on his poncho-style coat to cover his arms and slipped out of the base. No one had tried to stop him or insist he take another person, knowing just how much he needed the alone time after spending most of the summer hidden away. His arms drew too much attention to walk around with them uncovered after all, and the poncho was too thick to wear in the boiling heat of summer.

Now though he got no odd looks for wearing it, easily fading into the masses as he walked towards one of his favorite parks. Not many people bothered going there on weekdays, not with the sky getting dark earlier every day—but more than that, he loved the _colors_. Red and orange occupied the trees and ground as far as the eye could see, the changing leaves making it even more colorful than spring.

Sunset crept ever closer as he walked through the park and tinted the air gold, further accentuating the warm colors of autumn. Mezou took his time to enjoy the scenery as he walked deeper into the park, heading for his favorite spot: a plaza built around bronze statue of a man accompanied by a small child with a bright smile. As it came into sight his eyes focused not on the statue though, but the maple trees planted around it.

Those maple trees was the reason he loved this spot. While most of the other trees in the park turned red and orange and gold, these turned a deep shade of red that looked closer to violet and violet. It stood out, even the fallen leaves that littered the ground still looking rich and fresh.

Because of that awe, it took him a moment to notice the man already in the plaza.

Mezou was instantly on edge at realizing he was alone with the stranger, mentally analyzing the man for signs of danger. He faced partially away from Mezou so he could only see one side of the man's body, his attention focused on the statue with his hands casually stuffed in the pockets of his coat. From what Mezou could see of his face he had distinctly foreign features, with short light brown hair partially shaved on one side by his ear which had several piercings.

Plain and unassuming, no visual tells of what his Quirk might be. Those were the most dangerous kind of all, because Mezou had no idea what to expect.

Mezou stood still for a moment, silently debating if he should just leave. In that time the man's eyes slid over to him, a slightly darker shade of brown than his hair. Some emotion flickered in them, too briefly to catch and identify it before they seemed to settle and a casual smile spread across his face. "_Hey,_" he greeted in English, and then switched to perfectly unaccented Japanese. "Nice weather, isn't it?"

"...It is," Mezou allowed, wary of the stranger. The man hummed, turning back to the statue.

"Sorry if this seems random, but any idea who this guy is?"

"No clue." The statue lacked a plaque, and the bronze made it harder to pick out truly identifying features. The man hummed, pulling his hands out of his pocket to reveal a small notebook and pen.

"Shame. This isn't the first time I've seen this one, but there's never anyone around who I can ask. It's not critical or anything, but I was curious since usually there's one of Saigo Takamori here instead." The name caught Mezou's attention, recognizing it from history classes—or maybe from one of the other runaways, who was _obsessed_ with samurai—as one of the Three Great Nobles of the Restoration, and the so-called "last true samurai."

Though Mezou couldn't really pick out Saigo from a line of pictures, he felt it safe to say this statue didn't depict him. The man wore much more modern clothing, and had obvious signs of a Quirk in the form of a thin tail which curled around the smiling child's far ankle. "When was it replaced?" he asked, and the man shrugged, writing something in his notebook.

"No clue. I only found out when I found a note about it about a year ago. It's one of the smaller ones so it's not a priority, but it's still an interesting mystery." He spoke lightly and casually, his voice tinged with amusement, but Mezou found himself stiffening once more.

"Smaller ones?" he repeated. The man's pencil paused in its writing, and he glanced over with a thoughtful glint in his eye before smiling.

"Don't worry about it, it's just something I do to entertain myself." He turned back to his notes and Mezou remained silent, gaze now focused on the notebook.

Logically, Mezou knew he should probably leave. He shouldn't engage a total stranger in conversation while alone, _especially_ an obvious foreigner with no noticeable accent. Tourists never stayed long enough to lose their accents, so this man was either _very_ good at Japanese, had a natural knack for picking up local accents, or he lived here. Any of those scenarios spoke of potential danger.

Yet even so, he found himself rooted to the spot, eyes trained on the notebook. Mezou might be rational and cautious, but he was still a teenager. Teenagers had a tendency to be curious even when they knew something was dangerous. And as he stared at the foreign man with no accent who wrote in a notebook about a statue that neither of them knew—well, he was no exception to that rule.

The pencil paused its motions again, the man's gaze sliding over to him once more. The corners of his mouth twitched upwards, a sly glint in his eye. "Curious?" he asked, and even though Mezou shouldn't respond, should just drop it and _leave_, he found himself nodding. The man hummed as he turned back to the notebook, scribbling once more. Then his smile grew larger, suddenly sharp and full of teeth as he grinned down at the notebook. "Know what? _Screw it._"

Mezou tensed at the abrupt shift to English, not knowing _what_ the man said but instantly wary nonetheless. The man finished whatever he was writing before turning to face him more fully, his smile not quite as sharp but his eyes still glinting with mischief. "What the heck? Usually I don't talk about this, but this world's fucked up, I have no idea where any of my siblings are, and I'm not planning to stay long enough to find out."

"Long enough to find out what?" Mezou asked, already backing away. If he ran now, he could probably get away—

"Tell me, kid," the man said, making him freeze. "Do you believe in multiverse theory?"

* * *

Holy shit.

Just—_holy shit_.

Eijirou already understood some of the reasons why Anjou believed Ashido's whole "other dimension" story might be true, and why _he_ hadn't dismissed it completely either. While he still thought it sounded absolutely insane and could be some sort of trap or trick, after what she'd said, he thought he'd been prepared to accept it if it _did_ turn out to be true.

But to actually meet someone _else_ who had the same memories as Ashido though? Someone else who recognized her from those memories, and _him_ too?

More than that—for it to be _Todoroki Shouto_, the son of _Endeavor_?

This had officially skipped out of conspiracy theory territory into something _real_.

All at once the gravity of the situation hit him. Up until now, part of him had still been able to deny just how serious and potentially _dangerous_ the situation was. But now that he was faced with the _missing son of Endeavor_? Suddenly, the stakes had gotten a _lot_ higher than when it was just Ashido. This wasn't some random kid with a powerful Quirk villains might want, this was _the missing son of Endeavor_!

Either these memories were real, or this was a conspiracy of a more epic scale than he ever would have _dreamed_ of.

And now, a _third_ person showed up talking about this mythical Class 1-A. Someone who didn't claim to come _from_ that world like Ashido and Todoroki, but to have seen it in a _dream_ of all things thanks to some random dude's Quirk. And as Eijirou listened to him describe it (after a round of _proper_ introductions, since they now had three _more_ people suddenly participating), for some reason it _didn't_ sound absolutely insane.

Shouji Mezou, as he introduced himself, had to be one of the most terrifying teenagers Eijirou had ever seen. He looked bigger than all of them, with silver hair and a fabric mask over his overly-elongated face so you could only see his eyes. He also had _six_ arms, three on each side connected by some sort of membrane. Only two arms had actual hands, the rest ending in stumps. One of those stumps had a fleshy tendril extending from it with a mouth.

_That's_ what he used to talk, and Eijirou had to try not to stare too hard at it as Shouji described the dream.

"It started near the end of the day," he began. "It seemed to be a pretty normal lecture that was already wrapping up, people were just asking questions by the time it started. I sat in the front row between Ojiro," he nodded at the blond, "and a girl who was invisible."

"If she was invisible, how'd you know it was girl?" One of the other newcomers spoke up, a guy who'd introduced himself as Mime. Surprisingly Ashido and Todoroki had both ID'd him as someone from Class 1-B. They didn't remember his name though, so he'd decided to just use his codename, just like Akai and the other guy who'd followed Shouji, a guy with pointed ears called Rogue.

"The girl's uniform has a skirt," Shouji replied flatly, and Mime looked a bit sheepish while he continued. "The teacher called on two classmates before the bell rang. One was Asui," he nodded at the frog girl, "And the other was a girl named Yaoyorozu. The bell rang after he answered her question so he dismissed us. I got a look at the rest of the class while we were leaving. There were a lot of people, so I don't clearly remember all of them, but Rockfish was also there—"

"Kouda," Todoroki added to Ashido, who nodded in recognition, as did Shouji.

"Right. I also saw that blond actor who has that movie out right now."

"Aoyama Yuga?" Asui supplied helpfully, and Eijirou and Ashido both startled.

"_Aoyama Yuga's_ in your class!?" he yelped in shock, at the same time Ashido blurted, "Aoyama's a _movie star_ here!?"

"Yeah, that one's _still_ hilarious," Anjou snickered, shaking her head. "Anyways, keep going Shouji." He nodded, and so did the part of his arm that had the mouth much to Eijirou's discomfort before he continued.

"I also remember seeing Ashido and Todoroki since they stood out. Todoroki still had that scar, but his hair was split in two colors, not solid black." Todoroki's hand reached for his scar as he listened, a small frown on his face. "I remember... Jirou, I assume, because she was seated directly behind me and was talking to a blond kid next to her. And I also remember _you_." His attention focused on Eijirou as he spoke, making him stiffen. "You were sitting next to Asui, which is the only reason I really remember you. We never actually spoke directly."

"Then what?" Ashido pressed eagerly. "What happened after that?"

"Rockfish came to talk to me along with a boy with a crow or raven head—I assume that's Tokoyami," he added with a wry glance at Todoroki, who just nodded in confirmation before he continued. "We talked a bit about training while we left the classroom. When we walked out we heard a commotion down the hall, and saw a blond man who looked like a skeleton chasing after a robot with a mop."

_Wait, what?_ "Uh, what?" Ojiro asked, sounding just as lost as Eijirou felt. Ashido however gasped, her entire face lighting up with delight.

"_The janitor bot!_" she nearly screeched, turning to tug at Todoroki's arm. "That was the day that one janitor robot went haywire! It stole All Might's tie, remember? And he was totally begging Iida to help catch it!"

_Everyone_ startled at that, eyes bulging at the casual reference to _All Might_ of all people. Todoroki just nodded, saying, "He said he'd been chasing it around the school for half an hour when he asked Iida to help."

"Wait, back up, did you say ALL MIGHT!?" Akai yelped, looking understandably stunned because people just did _not_ casually reference All Might.

"I... didn't see All Might," Shouji said slowly. "But if Iida's the guy with blue hair and glasses, then I remember the skeleton man saying that to him. But, that wasn't..."

"That _was_ All Might!" Ashido replied, spinning to face them all with a grin. "I _told_ you—oops, I guess I told them, not you," she corrected herself mid-sentence sheepishly, gesturing at Eijirou and Anjou before continuing, "But anyways, he lost his powers fighting a _really_ bad villain a few months ago so now he's just a skeleton all the time! Oh, and he works at UA, too." No one bothered responding, all of them just _gawking_ at her.

Slowly they all turned to look at Todoroki, who simply nodded. "It's true. Endeavor was mad because he never got to beat him for the title Number One Hero."

"...Holy shit," Mime whispered, face understandably pale as everyone just... _processed it._

...You know, of all the bombshells Ashido dropped on them, Eijirou had honestly forgotten about that one. The whole "_All Might is still alive but a skeleton man now_" thing had just been so outrageous, he'd honestly kinda glossed over it. Hearing it from _Todoroki_ though made it a bit harder to ignore.

"...Well, it waxed the floor while it moved so Iida ended up slipping while trying to catch it," Shouji said after several long seconds. "A bunch of us started chasing it down the halls after that, and I ended up being the one to catch it instead. That's where the dream ended." A brief silence descended after he finished, everyone glancing at each other as they absorbed it.

Honestly, aside from the surprise cameo from _All Might of all people_, the dream sounded... pretty anti-climatic. Eijirou didn't know if he should be disappointed or what. It didn't seem all that special given it was supposedly a memory of another dimension.

"Okay," Akai said after a few seconds. "I guess I can _kinda_ see why you'd ask Anjou to look into it some more, but... What made you think it wasn't just, you know, _a dream_?"

"Because I never saw UA's uniforms until I looked it up the next day," Shouji responded promptly. "I might have seen them at some point and just couldn't remember it, but it's still odd that I'd remember them so accurately. In the dream I had a modified version that had no sleeves and was closer to a vest, and I know for a fact I'd never seen a version like that. I had to specifically look up sleeveless variants to find one picture." Weird logic, but hard to argue with that.

"Which is where I come in," Anjou said. "Don't blame you guys for doubting him. I probably would have written it off as a dream too if it wasn't for one detail."

"Which was?" Monoma pressed, gaze sharp, and she nodded at Ashido.

"He described Ashido perfectly. I know for a _fact_ they've never met. Ashido's from the Chiba prefecture, Shouji's from Fukuoka." Eijirou's eyes bulged at that bit of information. Fukuoka prefecture was in the Kyushu region—it was on a _totally separate island_. It was kinda crazy he'd come to Odawara all on his own. "The furthest Shouji's ever traveled was to Tokyo, twice in his whole life. He never went near Ashido's city. I even asked her if she'd ever been to Kyushu or even Okinawa, but she hadn't."

"Is there any chance villains would have an interest in Ashido?" Rogue piped up now, startling Eijirou. This was the first time the older teen had spoken since introducing himself, and he looked at Anjou with a critical gaze. "I'm not trying to outright doubt all this. But we can't overlook the possibility that she's a potential target."

"I did consider it," Anjou admitted nonchalantly. "But honestly, up until last Friday Ashido didn't really do anything to draw attention other than break dancing. Most people at school honestly thought her Quirk had to do with making her extra hyper."

"Hold on, what happened last Friday?" Mime asked curiously.

Ashido brightened and opened her mouth to respond, but Anjou cut her off. "That isn't really important right now, we can explain later. The point is, I couldn't see anyone being interested in Ashido beyond her sticking out with the mutation aspects. Either way, it was enough to at least get me interested and look into the rest of it, and the more I looked, the more people I found."

Already the gears were turning in Eijirou's head. "You said you were looking into Jirou for him, so you found her then, right?" he asked, and she nodded. "Then... You also mentioned Yaoyorozu and Ingenium's brother were in Hosu, and Shouji just mentioned Yaoyorozu too."

"Still never did find out her given name," Anjou mused lightly. "But yeah, that's what got me looking at Hosu in the first place. He didn't have a name for Iida, but he mentioned the guy was super-fast with engines in his legs, and that reminded me a bit of Ingenium who's based out of there. I went through some of his old interviews, and that's when I found out Ingenium has a little brother in our age bracket."

"Everything just kept lining up, huh," Ojiro murmured to himself with a frown. "I won't lie, it still sounds crazy, but I can see why you didn't just write it off." Anjou pressed her lips into a tight line, folding her arms over her chest.

"...To be honest, I still had some doubts," she admitted after a few seconds, surprising Eijirou. "Even with all those people, it's still all pretty circumstantial. None of it was really concrete evidence. But then, after talking to Ashido on Tuesday..." She trailed off, chuckling lowly and shaking her head. Eijirou felt a chill run down his spine; that was _definitely_ ominous. "There was one thing she said that _really_ sold me. A single detail that matched up with the dreams that _no one_ would know."

"Which was?" Monoma asked, and Anjou met his gaze coolly, her eyes spinning and flickering with her Quirk.

"He described one classmate with some kind of hardening Quirk," she began, and Eijirou froze. "Red eyes, pointed teeth. Said he hardened his skin when he slipped while chasing that robot. Kept talking about manliness, and hung off some guy that cursed like sailor." As she spoke Todoroki and Ashido turned to look at him, recognizing the description while Eijirou felt an overwhelming numbness.

"Me?" he whispered, making the others turn to look at him too. Anjou gave a single nod.

"That's what I thought at first, but there was one detail that didn't add up," she said, looking him dead in the eye. "The kid he saw had _red_ hair, not black."

The breath felt like it'd been knocked out of him, his whole body going numb as Ashido's words from back then earlier rang through his head. "_You dyed it red when we got into UA as a promise you're a manly man!_"

No. No way. No freaking way.

"And that's what's so weird," Anjou continued, not moving her eyes from his. "Why would someone go to all the trouble of inserting all these _real_ people into fake memories, people who _neither_ of them have probably ever met, and make sure all these little details are correct—and then change one person's hair randomly to be _red_ instead of black?"

She shook her head and answered her own question. "It's too weird and specific. With these kinds of things, the more details there are, the easier it is for people to pick it apart and find holes. It's already a pretty big and elaborate story. Adding something _that_ small is completely unnecessary, even if you add some kind of backstory for it. So these two are either telling the truth, or this is the most ridiculous and elaborate conspiracy ever."

Silence followed this. Eijirou didn't know how the others were taking it, but for him it really was just mind-numbing. He remembered that Anjou had looked at her back then as if she'd wanted to say _something_, but... For it to be because he was a living, walking clue? For _him_ to be the detail that made up her mind?

Holy _shit._

* * *

Shouto listened as Anjou laid out her reasoning in silence for the most part, just quietly processing it. He _did_ have a lot of information dumped on him suddenly after all; the fact that Kirishima had dyed his hair in their dimension and not this one was honestly pretty minor compared to everything else. His gaze kept trailing back to Shouji, who nodded along as Ashido and Monoma helpfully explained how Kirishima had only dyed his hair that morning to the rest.

Shouji had only described that man he'd met briefly. A foreigner with brown hair and eyes, no noticeable accent, and who never gave him a name. Shouji said after asking about the multiverse, the man had offered to use his Quirk on him to show him another world. Something about how he _knew_ Shouji was at UA in other worlds, and likely would have been there if it still existed in this one. He hadn't asked anything in return, simply claimed he was bored and wanted to scope another world.

Right now, that unknown man was their first real, _solid_ lead at getting home. A Quirk that let him show people dreams of other realities? And more than that, the way Shouji described it made it sound like this man wasn't from _this_ world, which meant he must be able to travel between them freely.

Just thinking about it made Shouto feel a buzz of anticipation deep inside himself. He didn't know if that man was the culprit responsible for how _they_ got here or had any other connection to their situation, but it didn't matter. If he had a Quirk that let him access the multiverse, even if he wasn't responsible, he'd surely at least know _something_ that could help them. He could tell Ashido had the same thought, her own eyes laser-focused on Shouji with even more intensity than him.

"That said, I found some _other_ interesting stuff when I looked up the rest of the people Ashido mentioned," Anjou commented, drawing back everyone's attention. Her smirk had faded, her expression more serious now. "Did you know Bakugou Katsuki went missing on November 9th?"

That had all of them tensing, Shouto and Ashido both nearly recoiling since they knew him personally. Shouto and Bakugou had become decent friends over the course of their time in remedial license training, and Ashido was obviously already close to him. So to hear this world's Bakugou had disappeared, most likely kidnapped by villains given the state of the world... That was bad, _very_ bad.

"I woke up here on November 14th," he said after a few moments, and Ashido bobbed her head with a frown.

"Yeah, me too."

"I doubt it's connected, but if he _did_ get caught up in this, we probably won't be able to find out anytime soon," Anjou remarked. "The other one to note is Midoriya Izuku." And now Shouto grew even stiffer. _Midoriya?_ Flashes of the green-haired boy filled his mind, some having him smiling brightly, and others standing with his arm dangling uselessly at his side while his voice echoed that it was _his_ power.

Shouto swallowed harshly, forcing the last image from his mind as his hands clenched at his sides. "What happened to him?" he asked tightly, and Anjou glanced at them for a moment before speaking.

"Midoriya Izuku's parents died when he was eight in Flight 174." That hit Shouto like a rock, his eyes widening in disbelief. Memories of Midoriya's mother instantly flickered in his head. He'd only met her once, at the hospital after the ill-fated summer camp, but she had seemed so kind and cheerful, and Midoriya only had good things to say about her. For her to die left his stomach churning for his friend even before Anjou continued. "And then a few months after that, he disappeared completely. No one knows where he is, the investigation went cold."

And just like that Shouto's mind went blank, an icy chill crashing over him. _Midoriya was missing?_

His mind kicked into gear a moment later, racing at record speeds and reaching the worst conclusions possible. Shouto knew Midoriya had _some_ connection to All Might, even if he claimed he wasn't his love child. If All Might died in that big battle before the crash, and afterwards, someone with a grudge against All Might found out about that mysterious connection...

Then there would be no one left to protect Midoriya.

"There's one other thing," Anjou said before his thoughts could spiral further. "Midoriya Izuku was Quirkless."

And now, Shouto's brain really _did_ shut down, no longer able to process _anything_. _What?_ Midoriya was _Quirkless_?

"What?" Ashido gasped next to him. "But—no, no way, that doesn't make any sense! He wasn't Quirkless!" She stubbornly shook her head. "He has some kind of, of super strength or something! Right, Todoroki?" She whirled to face him for backup, and Shouto could only numbly nod before she spun back to continue vehemently, "It kept breaking his bones and everything! It even had these sparks sometimes!"

"I don't know what to tell you," Anjou said with a shrug. "I only know that all the articles called him Quirkless. That's probably why the case went cold." Her voice held a particularly bitter note that made Shouto's eyebrows furrow. Somehow, her tone felt like she found that detail oddly personal. A glance Ashido and Kirishima showed them both looking equally grim, so they must know something he didn't. "In any case, I can't say for sure if he's alive or not. But the fact you guys both have memories of him specifically is definitely weird."

No one spoke for a few moments, just thinking it over. "So... what does that mean?" Asui finally asked.

"I have no idea," Anjou replied bluntly. "It's just something I found worth noting. That said, I couldn't find anyone else Ashido mentioned though, but we can't eliminate the possibility that you guys aren't the _only_ ones here. The way I see it, our first step is to see if we can find anyone else from your class who's in this mess to see if they might have any ideas how it happened. So if you guys can make a full list, complete with any information you remember like names, Quirks, where they lived before, middle schools, that'd be a good start."

"What about the man Shouji mentioned?" Shouto piped up, finally voicing the thought that had been haunting him this whole time.

"That's priority number two," Anjou declared. "Finding him would be ideal, but let's be realistic. We don't know where he is, what his name is, and Shouji can't show us what he looks like, either. It's probably not going to happen that easily. Your classmates are more tangible sources we can _actually_ investigate and locate." Shouto nodded in understanding, accepting her reasoning as reasonable enough even if he didn't like it.

After that the room lapsed into silence once more, everyone taking their time to mull over everything they'd just learned. "...Guys, this is really big," Kirishima said after a few seconds passed. "Maybe..." He bit his lip, and shook his head before pushing on. "Look, I get that you guys are runaways and can't let yourselves get found, but maybe—maybe we _should_ go to some Pro Heroes with this."

The reaction was instantaneous. Nearly every runaway leaped to their feet, shouting loud refusals and objections and overall voicing their disapproval. Kirishima winced and shrunk back with wide eyes under the sudden outburst of angry voices directed at him, and Shouto felt a pang of pity for him. The shouting continued for nearly a full minute, the voices overlapping into an incoherent cacophony of noise, before one rose above the rest. "_ENOUGH!_"

Immediately all of them silenced and turned to face the _other_ person Shouto didn't recognize whatsoever, the boy called Rogue. He seemed slightly older than them and more mature, and the fact everyone went silent at his command seemed to suggest a degree of respect. He surveyed the room silently for a few seconds before speaking. "I don't like the idea of risking contact with the Pros either, but Kirishima's got a point. This is big, probably more than we can handle."

Everyone began to bristle, clearly ready to object, but fell still when he held up a hand. "I'm not saying we should go to them _now_. Honestly, I'd rather not get involved in this at all," he added with a shrug. "This whole mess reeks of danger. But the fact these memories involve so many of you guys makes this too shady for me to ignore, even if it would only be Parasyte, and Todoroki and Ashido never showed up. I think we all want the truth, right?" The runaways all exchanged silent looks before turning back with wary nods, and Asui stepped forward.

"We can't ignore this," she declared bluntly. "We might not be heroes, but most of us here still want to be and do our best to help, even if it's not legal, kero. Even if we weren't in those memories, we can't ignore people in need."

"If there's a world where so many of us were able to go to UA, we need to find out about it," Ojiro added, looking resolute and determined. "And I want to know how much of that knowledge can be applied here." The others nodded in agreement, minds clearly settled, and Monoma crossed his arms.

"What's the plan, Rogue?" he asked, all business.

"We'll investigate this as long as we can," Rogue responded briskly. "See if we can find either more of these guys' classmates, or that guy Parasyte met. If we talk to more people who remember that world, we might be able to find some pattern to it, like Nettmegg said. But chances are, we won't," he added gravely. "This _is_ big. Whether there's actually another world or this is just some crazy convoluted trap, either way, this is bigger than _anything_ any of us have ever dealt with. So after a point, we'll most likely _need_ to turn this over to Pro Heroes so they can handle it—"

"No." The sudden interruption surprised everyone, and all of them turned to Shouto. He didn't flinch under the scrutiny, his voice level and calm as he spoke with steely determination. "We can't turn this over to the Pro Heroes."

"Yuki, be realistic," Rogue said sharply. "This eventually _will_ get outside our scope. Talking to Pros will be risky, so we'll put it off as long as possible, but they have resources we'll never have—"

"We _can't,_" Shouto interrupted, meeting his gaze squarely. "If we go to them, they'll probably take us into custody, and that means when this is over, this world's version of me will be forced to go back to Endeavor."

His words seemed to have the effect he desired, all fight vanishing from the older teen's face and replaced by a look of shock and surprise. The others were similarly quiet and stunned, and Shouto used the opportunity to voice his thoughts, pulling out his eyepatch from his pocket as he did. "I've said this before, but when I woke up here I had all the components for a disguise on my body and even dyed my hair. I don't know why my counterpart ran away, but knowing how Endeavor was in my world..."

He trailed off there, eyes narrow as he squeezed his fist around the eyepatch. "The fact I ran away and left my siblings behind must mean I was _desperate_ in this world. I _know_ it must be because of that man's actions. If he learns I've been found, he'll probably grab me and take me back before anyone else can help. And even if he doesn't do that, and _lets_ them help me and fix the situation, he'll probably demand custody of me immediately after everything's solved. And I can't _do that,_" he said, hissing the words out. "I can't let my other self get trapped with _that man_—"

"Todoroki..." Ashido's quiet voice made him suddenly still, turning to see her looking at him with wide, almost _horrified_ eyes. She took a deep breath as their gazes met, her face crumpling more and more as she whispered. "You... You don't know...?"

"...Don't... know...?" he repeated. Slowly he turned to look at the others, and saw similarly shocked and horrified looks. Ojiro, Akai and Mime weren't looking at him, all sporting distinct grimaces as they ducked their heads; Monoma and Rogue regarded each other with small frowns; Shouji just hung his head; Kirishima looked ready to cry... Even Asui, always cool-headed and calm, looked heavily somber compared to usual as she looked down at her hands. The only one who would meet his gaze was Anjou, her eyes narrowing as she studied him.

"You actually don't know, do you," she murmured, and he frowned.

"Know what?" he demanded, and several of the group exchanged looks. Finally Monoma took a deep breath, seeming to visibly brace himself as he forced himself to meet Shouto's gaze.

"Todoroki, I'm sorry I don't know how to say this, but... Endeavor died a year ago. You ran away a week later."

And just like that, Shouto's world shattered once more.

* * *

**Number of people who predicted Endeavor was dead: zero.**


	50. Chapter 50: A Quiet Evening

Chapter 50

.::A Quiet Evening::.

All across Japan as evening fell, people retreated to their homes to settle in for the night. Some sat down for dinner with their families, quietly celebrating the start of the weekend. Some sat in their bedrooms and offices, working on projects for school or work that couldn't wait. Still more donned uniforms and support gear as they stepped into the night, prepared for a long, cold night of stalking the streets protecting those who needed it most—or in some cases, searching for openings to _prey_ on those people.

As the night wore on six teenagers let themselves indulge in a quiet evening full of quiet contemplation, a rare indulgence for those trapped in another world.

Deep in the heart of Hosu, Jirou Kyouka reclined in a bathtub letting the warm water soothe her aching muscles. After taking yesterday off to wait for the initial clamor from their big villain fight on Wednesday to fade, they'd gone on another patrol today, this one thankfully much quieter. A total of four hours had been spent creeping along the streets looking for crime, stopping two muggings, one shoplifter, and one attempted assault before calling it a day.

All in all, it had been a relatively peaceful and uneventful patrol, much to her and Kaminari's combined relief. The worst injury either of them got had been when she landed a little hard after climbing a tree using Gecko Mode to rescue a kitten for a little girl. But while she hadn't been injured like Kaminari had been on Sunday she still felt unbelievably exhausted and sore though, especially her arms.

The battle on Wednesday had been more straining and tiring than Kyouka had expected. All day yesterday her body had ached, bruises forming all over from when she'd dived to the ground to avoid the villainess's attacks. Surprisingly the largest one didn't come from that though, but _Iida_. Even now she could see a particularly large one on her stomach where he'd effectively clotheslined her while pushing her out of the way of the woman's attack. Kyouka appreciated the save, but he hadn't been gentle.

But the worst was _definitely_ her arms. That stunt where she'd used Gecko Mode to climb up a wall while Kaminari clung to her legs had taken its toll. Yesterday just _lifting_ them left them sore and aching. The pain had thankfully faded over the course of the day to the point she could ignore it, but it had come back full force after she used Gecko Mode again during today's patrol to get that cat.

Still, she didn't regret it. The kid had been _beaming_ when Kyouka handed it over. They'd ended the patrol not long after that, much to her relief, and aside from eating dinner a little bit ago she hadn't used her arms since. She'd just sprawled on the couch with the TV on while Kaminari went around doing... _whatever_.

"Gentle Criminal, huh?" she murmured to herself as she tipped back her head and let her eyes slide shut. All the stations had been focused pretty heavily on the phantom thief's arrival in Hosu on Wednesday. News had been pretty evenly split between his encounter with Ingenium and their battle with that villainess, and even now she didn't know if that was a blessing or not.

What _really_ got her interest though was Gentle Criminal's partner, Phantom Shadow. The mysterious figure had only shown up at the tail-end of the encounter with Ingenium, throwing a smoke bomb at him while they escaped. He hadn't appeared long, the camera too far to get a good look as he and Gentle skipped away through the sky. Today the stations had played older footage where he'd used his Quirk though, and after seeing just one clip Kyouka had no doubts:

Phantom Shadow was absolutely Tokoyami.

So far everyone they'd met in this world seemed to have managed to keep a normal civilian life, but she had never expected any of them would go _villain_. She idly wondered why Tokoyami worked with Gentle Criminal in this world—if he was a willing accomplice, or if he had been kidnapped and forced into a villainous life at a young age. She'd have to do more research on Gentle Criminal later to figure it out, but she would have done that even if Tokoyami hadn't been in the picture.

After all, they might end up going after him.

Taking down Gentle Criminal would be risky and draw a lot of attention. She hadn't heard much about him yet, but according to Kaminari rumors and gossip had run rampant at school after his last heist. For whatever reason he seemed to be fairly popular here as some sort of anti-hero or vigilante who only targeted corporations. Compared to their world, he was a freaking celebrity here.

Kyouka still wasn't sure they wanted the kind of massive attention that would come from battling someone as infamous as that. Just fighting that villainess on Wednesday had gotten them a lot of attention that could easily go the wrong way. Even so, if they happened to see him and Tokoyami during a patrol... well, they'd have to do _something_. They were the 1-A Vigilantes. They couldn't just ignore a criminal.

* * *

In the room next door, Kaminari Denki sat on the couch with his laptop scrolling through the newest batch of photos from the camera Hatsume made. He'd brought it along during today's patrol, and unlike the chaotic mess that had been Wednesday, this time he'd actually been able to get some shots during the lulls.

Most of them weren't that exciting; he couldn't use the camera while actively fighting after all. The closest thing he'd gotten to an action shot was a picture of Jirou standing next to a guy she'd knocked down with a punch to the stomach, but to his disappointment it was too blurry to actually use.

Between action they ended up doing some smaller things too though, just little tasks to help when they saw people who needed it. That's where most of the photos came from, just candid shots of them helping random people with more mundane stuff. Classic good deeds like carrying bags for old ladies crossing the street, or helping clean up a street after a child's Quirk unexpectedly activated and knocked over everything that wasn't nailed down.

He grinned as he paused on a photo of Jirou scaling a tree to retrieve a cat that got stuck on a high branch. The smoky gray cat stood out against the brown and orange foliage, sitting with its back hunched and neck craned to watch Jirou from above. At the bottom you could see the top of the head of the little girl who'd asked them to help, hands reaching up eagerly. A classic heroic rescue, and better yet the 1-A on her back was crisp and clear as she stretched one arm up to keep climbing.

"Jackpot," Denki said to himself, moving it to the folder for good photos before switching over to the web browser. He still had their FacePage profile open, now bearing the profile picture of them holding the "1-A" and "Vigilantes" signs, and a myriad of other photos and links to articles about them. It only took a few minutes to upload the photo, tacking on a simple caption, '_Really feel like heroes today!_'

After it uploaded he switched to another tab with their still-new Tweeter profile. With their forced break yesterday they'd taken up Hatsume on the offer of having that guy she knew install all the security stuff so they could use other sites without being traced. They'd decided to stick to just Tweeter for now, since they both used it in their own world and were more familiar with it than other platforms.

Though the account was barely a day old they'd already gotten a few dozen followers, the unique photos setting them apart from copycats and pretenders. He uploaded the picture there, too, tagging it with '_#justherothings_'. No need to get too wordy. After he tweeted it he leaned back with a quiet sigh, taking a few seconds to just relax while waiting for responses. Their social media presence was growing slowly but steadily, amassing a total of nearly three hundred followers between both sites.

Still, part of him wondered if this was really doing _anything_. They'd gotten comments and a few followers, sure, and their brand was going strong, but they'd gotten nothing yet to indicate someone else was here. That was the whole reason they bothered with the social media campaign. With each day of silence, it seemed more and more likely they were all alone here after all. All they could do was keep posting and hope for _something_.

Biting his lip, Denki pushed the thought away and switched back to FacePage. A quick refresh showed a few comments had already posted on the newest photo and he skimmed over them. The first two just commented on the generic nature of saving a cat from a tree, but when he reached the third one he froze. Denki bolted upright, sitting up so fast it would have knocked the laptop to the floor if he hadn't been clutching it so tightly.

'_Do the names Pinkie, Heights Alliance and Chargebolt mean anything to you guys? If they do, DM me. Asking for a friend._'

His heart picked up its pace as he read it over and over again, barely able to believe his eyes. The commenter's name, 'Nettmegg,' meant nothing to him, nor did the stylized drawing of a satellite dish used as a profile pic. But the _comment_—Pinkie, Heights Alliance, _Chargebolt_.

"We're not alone," he whispered, tears starting to form as a shaky smile formed. "We're... _We're not alone!_"

* * *

In another prefecture entirely, Uraraka Ochako stood in the apartment of a woman she knew to be some kind of villain staring at a closed bedroom door. Aiko had returned only briefly that evening, carrying a stiff, black plastic case full of _something_ which she never showed Ochako (though the texts from Deku gave her some ideas). She'd come out of her room wearing a red jacket with fake fur trim and a punk-looking skirt over tight jeans, completing the look with the same goggles she'd worn the day Ochako first met her.

"_I have work tonight, and won't be back until tomorrow afternoon,_" she'd said. "_Stay inside while I'm gone and don't leave the building, okay?_"

Ochako had voiced her agreement without hesitation, but after a few hours passed, she found herself gravitating towards the woman's bedroom. Aiko's door looked plain and unremarkable, yet standing in front of it she found herself having to steel her nerves—whether because she wanted to enter, or to talk herself out of going inside.

Even after staying with Aiko for five days, Ochako didn't know what, exactly, she did for the Alliance, but she'd started to develop theories. When Ochako returned on Wednesday, Aiko had been completely unrecognizable. She looked like a man down to her build, her hair much shorter and fluffy and colored light green like lettuce, and her face even had a smattering of colorful freckles. The only thing that _didn't_ look radically different were her eyes, which still looked like starry skies.

"_Oh, I had to dress up for that favor,_" she'd explained cheerfully once Ochako got over her initial shock. "_That's why I asked you all those questions!_" Ochako had figured out _that_ much, but it was still shocking to see how _significant_ the change had been. Even her body build seemed different, far more masculine than before. Not super-buff or anything, but _still_. That sweater wasn't exactly baggy.

That moment had been when Ochako really realized how little she knew about the woman, not even her Quirk. But more than that, it reminded her that Aiko was almost _certainly_ a villain of some sort.

It wasn't that Ochako had _forgotten_ that, but it just hadn't really _clicked_ until she saw Aiko look like a completely different person. Up to that point Aiko just had been so nice and friendly, always so cheerful and helpful. Anyone could tell she genuinely cared about Deku. It was hard to imagine her doing anything truly nefarious.

But then, she _did_ break Shigaraki's wrist—and more than that, _she had Aizawa-sensei's goggles_.

Ochako had actually seen them since coming here. She'd had to take a shower in Aiko's bedroom since using Deku's shower felt weird and the other bathrooms didn't have working showers, and Aiko had them on the dresser in plain sight. It only took one glance to know they weren't some knock-off imitations. Those were the real deal, and she couldn't think of any decent explanation for someone connected to _villains_ to get his goggles.

Aiko had secrets Ochako couldn't begin to imagine, and she couldn't ask.

If Ochako was going to continue staying with her, she wanted to know exactly _who_ she was dealing with. She would bet money that Aiko's interest in disguises was more than just a hobby, especially after Deku told her about her passion for Quirk chemistry before Aiko came back with that black case. The apartments gave no hints though; Aiko had no weapons or tools lying around, no plans or itineraries in the open. If she _did_ have anything related to her work, it would be in her bedroom.

With Aiko gone for the night, right now would be her best chance to look. Yet even so, Ochako found herself hesitating. Did she _really_ want to do this? She'd seen the room two times now when taking a shower, and aside from Aizawa-sensei's goggles nothing had stood out. Anything related to her work would probably be hidden, meaning Ochako would have to snoop.

While she wouldn't hesitate to do it for a good cause, she was more worried about Aiko noticing the signs she'd searched the room. She had no idea how the woman would react, if she'd still be friendly and maybe tease her for being curious, or if she'd get mad. Ochako had yet to see Aiko angry, but... _she broke Shigaraki's wrist_. That was a red flag on its own.

But also... Ochako remembered seeing a shrine there. Not a full, proper one like in her family's home, but still obviously a shrine to the dead.

That was what _really_ made Ochako hesitate. Something about intruding upon a room with a shrine made her stomach twist guiltily. Even when she'd first seen it she hadn't been able to look at it for more than a second, guiltily looking away as if seeing something very private. There had been a table with unlit candles in front of two rows of shelves draped with white cloth holding several photos—not one or two, _several_ photos, each in a nice frame decorated with black ribbons.

Her fists clenched at her sides as she inhaled sharply, wracked with indecision. Even if those photos could give her some insight into Aiko's history, Ochako didn't like the idea of intruding upon her privacy like _that_.

Before she could dwell on it too long her phone suddenly dinged in her pocket. She jumped as she recognized the special chime from FacePage, scrambling to pull it out and open the site. Instead of a new message from Deku or Ashido _finally_ accepting her friend request though, she saw a notification about a message from the person who'd sent _her_ a request earlier that afternoon.

Her mouth thinned as she looked at the notification, her eyebrows furrowing. The name "Nettmegg" didn't sound like Ashido or anyone else she knew, and it was odd she only got a message now hours later. Still, after a moment of hesitation she opened the messenger to read it.

'_Hey, thanks for accepting my request. We don't know each other, but I think you know my friend. Do the names Pinkie and Uravity mean anything to you?_'

* * *

At the same time in the far edges of Nabu, Midoriya Izuku settled in his teacher's cell so they could listen to another teacher's voice stream from his phone. Aizawa looked more relaxed than he had this whole time as he reclined atop the blanket, his head resting on a pillow and his bad leg elevated on a few other pillows. The tension didn't fade from his body completely though, still shooting Izuku wary glances now and then, but Izuku had started to grow numb to the distrusting looks.

The teenager curled in the corner to give the captive hero as much space as possible, a blanket wrapped around himself like a cocoon as he hugged his own pillow to his chest. Sitting on the floor, listening to Present Mic's voice steadily stream from his phone as he enthusiastically introduced song after song... How many nights had he spent like this over the years, eagerly trying to stay awake long enough to hear the end?

Still, this time he found his concentration wavering, his mind too restless to even entertain the thought of dozing off. His gaze kept flickering to a small plate with a single pill and an uncapped water bottle next to where his teacher lay, both untouched.

He knew from experience Aizawa was no stranger to pain. Any discomfort at his broken leg was expertly hidden behind a mask of calculated coolness and indifference. But Izuku couldn't imagine it didn't hurt _at all_, especially not after whatever he had endured before getting taken by Shigaraki and the Alliance. The man had obviously been in bad shape in those horrifying few seconds when Izuku first saw him, and that was _before_ his leg got broken.

Magne had been the one to suggest he just bring the man a painkiller when he'd unintentionally mumbled those concerns aloud. She'd said that Shigaraki probably wouldn't notice or even care if he did. Ultimately Aizawa was Izuku's "toy"—and he'd winced at that word, not knowing if it was worse or better than "pet"—so as long as he didn't release him, whatever Izuku did with the captive hero was his business.

But when he mustered the courage to bring one in, Aizawa refused to take it.

He'd glared at the pill suspiciously when Izuku first explained what it was, and then simply ignored it. Izuku naturally hadn't tried to force it on him, leaving it within easy reaching distance so he could take it of his own accord, and since then it hadn't been touched. Even now Aizawa's gaze still occasionally darted towards it, gaze calculating and critical before always, _always_ turning away.

The fact his teacher refused to take it broke Izuku's heart, reminding him just how little this version of the man trusted him. In his place Izuku would probably be suspicious too—_especially_ after seeing Aiko's lab—but that didn't make it hurt any less.

For all they seemed to have bonded over the past few days, it was perfectly clear that Aizawa still saw him as an enemy.

_Is bringing Kacchan and Shinsou really a good idea?_ The dismal thought repeated for the umpteenth time this hour, making Izuku bury his face into his pillow a little more. The request to have Aizawa act as a teacher had been a spur of the moment impulse when Kurogiri first told them they'd _all_ have to start doing homework. It had been the perfect opening to get Kacchan and Shinsou to meet him so they could start building their own bond of trust with him and prepare for the eventual escape. The fact the mist-man agreed to a minimally supervised tutoring session _still_ surprised Izuku.

But as good as it could be, Izuku knew Aizawa wouldn't react well. They both had those anklet-bombs—even if the _bomb_ part wasn't obvious—and Shinsou had a _muzzle_. One look would be all Aizawa would need to recognize they were prisoners held here against their will. It didn't matter if they all acted like best friends, the obvious imbalance in their power dynamic would surely tank whatever good opinions he'd built of Izuku.

Losing what little trust he'd managed to gain made Izuku want to _scream_, but... He felt like he had no other choice. _If he can meet Kacchan and Shinsou, he might trust them more than me. They might be able to get through to him more easily, and then they can tell him what's really going on._

(Still, it hurt that _he_ was the one who knew Aizawa best, the one who would trust his life to the man first and foremost, and he was the one Aizawa trusted the _least_.)

A sudden stutter from Mic's voice cut into his thoughts, the abrupt change enough to jar Izuku back to reality even if he hadn't been listening closely. Mic's words began to distort and glitch out, skipping some parts and repeating syllables for several seconds at a time. He lifted his head to look at his phone with furrowed eyebrows, wondering if it was dying, and across from him Aizawa did the same.

Just as Izuku began to untangle himself from the cocoon the sound abruptly cut out. After several long seconds Mic's voice returned, this time speaking clearly without break. "_Wow, sorry about that dear listeners! We seem to be having some technical difficulties here at the station right now. We're gonna play some music until we figure this out, so sit tight, and Put Your Hands UP for some rocking beats!_"

Izuku's eyebrows only furrowed further as another song began streaming, crawling over to pick up the phone. Something about Mic's voice just then felt... _weird_. "That... was that actually Present Mic?" he muttered as he turned down the volume a bit. "His voice sounded similar, but... It sounded just a little off? Like, maybe it was a recording? Or an impersonator? There's a lot of support gear that can copy voices, right? Or... maybe he just used a different microphone or something, they did mention technical difficulties, so he just _sounded_ different?"

"...It probably wasn't him." Aizawa's voice startled Izuku, nearly dropping the phone as his head snapped up. The hero regarded the phone with narrowed eyes, his mouth pressed into a tight line as he seemed to consider... _something_, taking several seconds to think before continuing. "...Chances are, he has some other work that's more urgent, and they were playing a recording for the show. At the very least, if I were in his place, I'd have some backups in case I was busy."

Izuku perked up at the information, realizing Aizawa was probably right. Back in his world, Mic had once mentioned that he kept emergency recordings if he had a raid or other hero activity that overlapped with his show's broadcast. It was less to preserve the schedule, and more to make sure that villains wouldn't suspect he was up to something that night. He recalled the man even mentioned in class that he had an intern who could do a near-perfect impression of him for emergencies.

Still, the fact that Aizawa actually _explained_ that, even if he didn't explain all of it... Izuku was _technically_ connected to villains who might find that information useful, who might read between the lines and figure out the real purpose. But he told Izuku anyway, and that...

That filled him with a little bit of hope.

* * *

At that very moment Yamada Hizashi's phone was buzzing with texts from his manager about the technical issues, not that he noticed. His attention was focused solely on the meeting which had only just begun to wrap up. Conversation had bounced between the three missing teenagers and Shouta in equal parts, the focus always drifting back to the Villain Alliance in the end.

Ultimately though, they'd made no real headway on how to move next. People offered strategy after strategy, plan after plan, but they lacked the most crucial element of all: _information_. As it stood they had no idea where the Villain Alliance was based, no idea where the teenagers might have gone. The most solid proposal was to investigate everyone connected to Midoriya Izuku, the boy who seemed to be Shigaraki's brother and the one who they suspected played some role in Uraraka's disappearance.

Beside him Nemuri had grown ever more quiet as that encounter got mentioned again and again, glowering into space with growing intensity. He knew she blamed herself to some degree. She'd been there after all; she'd been the one to usher Uraraka away upon recognizing Midoriya and then Shigaraki. Even if Uraraka's disappearance happened later, the woman probably still blamed herself for not being there when she knew both her parents would be gone.

After all the times she'd supported and comforted him over Shouta, Hizashi felt it was probably high time to return the favor, but he couldn't. Not when Shouta had finally been found to be _alive_, and was now in the custody of the Villain Alliance for some damn reason they couldn't fathom. For the past three days he'd been in a constant state of relief, horror, hope, despair, euphoria, dread—it was _exhausting_, to constantly fluctuate between such powerful emotions like this.

_Sorry Nemuri, I'm not in the right mindset to help you right now._ He offered his friend a silent apology as Vlad and Snipe approached after watching her closely the whole meeting. As they began talking to her he slipped away and left them to handle her this time, instead heading for where Lady of the Night talked to Oracle and Figment.

With her psychometry, Lady had the most information on Shouta's current state. She might not be able to help him _directly_ right now, but maybe there was something she'd picked up but hadn't mentioned yet. Or maybe they could work out a plan to investigate further. Search the area around the base's ruins, see if she could pick up any _other_ impressions that could give them some sort of hint.

Anything that could bring them closer to finding Shouta.

As he got closer Oracle turned to face him with a lazy nod and smile, cutting off Hizashi's intended greeting. The other two either didn't notice him yet or simply didn't care, continuing their conversation. "So he's still not here?" Lady of the Night muttered.

"I texted Utsushimi, but she says she hasn't seen him," Figment replied, shaking his head. "I wouldn't worry. He could just be hanging out alone somewhere waiting for this meeting to end." Lady of the Night frowned, seeming to be unsatisfied by that response.

"Yo, what's up over here?" Hizashi asked in lieu of a greeting, his curiosity momentarily preempting his desire to ask about Shouta.

"Talking about Mail," Oracle responded with a shrug. "That's spelled _M-A-I-L_, for the record." Hizashi perked up at the spelling, expecting a more classic "_M-I-L-E_" with that pronunciation. Oracle shook his head. "No, it's not a nickname, and is probably an actual name." Hizashi's eyebrows furrowed at the "_probably_" and Oracle snorted. "It's complicated. Trust me, you don't want to know." And then, "No, we have no idea where it's from. If you figure it out, _please_ tell us. The internet keeps telling us the history of the postal service when we try searching it."

"...Wow, I see why people say you're fun to talk to," Hizashi quipped dryly, managing his first _actual_ words this whole conversation. Oracle cracked a grin at that, mischief and amusement glinting in his gold and turquoise eyes.

"Sorry, habit. I'll stop now." He smoothly stepped half a step to the side as he spoke, neatly dodging the light bop Lady of the Night aimed at his head. She shot him an annoyed glare but didn't comment or try to do it again, turning to Hizashi instead.

"Ignore him, he had a bad childhood and never learned how to be an actual adult." Despite his annoyance Hizashi felt slightly amused at how Oracle stuck out his tongue at her, as if reinforcing her statement. The childish gesture eroded some of his initial irritation and he found himself smiling.

"It's fine, I'd probably do the same thing if I had that Quirk," he said with a light laugh. "Seems like it'd be fun. Who's this Mail guy, though?" The duo exchanged brief looks at that, seeming to communicate silently before turning back.

"It's complicated," they chorused, perfectly deadpan. Hizashi found himself snorting, and Lady continued, "Short version, he's basically an honorary member of the General Analysis Team and Nighteye Agency. He usually hangs out around here, but he headed off somewhere on Monday night and we haven't seen him since. Sometimes he disappears like that, but it's rare for him to be gone for this long."

Hizashi felt his amused smile quickly fade as she spoke, his expression becoming more serious. "Do you think something happened to him?" he asked grimly. He didn't know what role this guy had, but if he worked with the Nighteye Agency he'd probably be a target.

Lady of the Night seemed to pick up on his thoughts though, shaking her head. "No, he's probably fine," she replied. "He's a... special case."

"Frankly, if someone could actually hurt or capture him, I'd be impressed," Oracle added with a wry smirk, which quickly took on a sharp edge as he added, "Impressed, and then outraged and _fucking homicidal_." He said the last two words in English, and this time he didn't dodge when Lady of the Night bopped her fist on his head, his grin never fading.

Hizashi just raised his eyebrows at his interesting choice of words to say in English, but decided not to comment on it. "Can't you call him?"

"Not an option for reasons," Lady sighed. "Honestly, he really is probably fine. He always tells _someone_ when he leaves, we just need to figure out who."

"And I just found the answer," Figment suddenly said, giving a low whistle as he looked at his phone. He had a small smirk, eyes just as mischievous and amused as Oracle's. "Utsushimi just texted that he asked Togata and Tamaki on Monday night for directions to _your_ charges' apartment building, Oracle. Probably caught the last train."

That had the other two heroes tensing and standing very straight, exchanging wide-eyed looks while Hizashi felt his mood sink. _Shit._ Talking to Lady of the Night about Shouta would have to wait. "I'm guessing he never showed up?" he guessed gravely, mentally preparing himself for the meeting to get a surprise extension to form an emergency search party.

"...If he did, I wouldn't know," Oracle said slowly, and that... made Hizashi frown, confused.

"He shadowed _you_?" Lady of the Night asked, and frowned as she pulled out her phone. "If he caught the last train to Kamino, he probably waited at their apartment building all night until you showed up. And watching you stare out a window for hours on end is boring, so he'd probably go back, which means..."

"_That son of a bitch,_" Oracle whispered in English, a giant grin breaking on his face. "_That fucking son of a bitch. Holy shit._"

"Uh, what's going on?" Hizashi asked, feeling very confused and lost, and Oracle _laughed_. Threw his head back with a loud cackle that startled everyone around them, several people turning to look at them in confusion and alarm as he kept cackling.

"_Mail, I fucking love you!_" he shouted, uncaring of all the stares. Next to him Lady of the Night growled in irritation and shrunk away from all the looks.

"Keep it down, moron!" she hissed, and Oracle's cackling tapered off into a low chuckle as he straightened his head. The heroine had a tense frown on her face as she glanced at the people watching them, seeming to consider something as her eyes narrowed. "I'm going to tell Nighteye. Stay here and _don't_ make a scene."

She shot him a pointed look and Oracle just nodded, a wide grin on his face as she hurried off with Figment in tow. The others shot them curious looks but soon returned to their own conversations, leaving Hizashi and Oracle in relative peace. "Uh, what's going on?" Hizashi asked, and Oracle turned to him with a devious-looking smile. He leaned forward and Hizashi instinctively mimicked the motion, the other hero's voice dropping a few bars lower.

"Mail was there when Ashido and Kirishima went missing, but he never came back here, and he didn't follow me here today, either," he explained, eyes sparkling with delight. "Which means he followed _them_."

"Wait, WHAT?" Hizashi nearly used his Quirk on the last word, getting some _more_ alarmed stares, though these were closer to glares. He winced and shot them an apologetic look before turning back to Oracle and speaking more lowly. "So wait, you think this Mail guy managed to follow them? And you don't think they noticed him?"

Oracle just shook his head, clearly suppressing another cackle as he grinned. "Present Mic, my friend, if they actually noticed him I'd eat my license. There's no other explanation, he _must_ have followed them. He's probably with them right now."

_Holy shit,_ Hizashi thought faintly. No wonder Oracle had been shouting like that. This was an actual, _solid_ lead—no, this was more than a lead, they had someone who actually knew where those kids were. This was a serious breakthrough, the first real one on _any_ of these damn cases! "So all we need to do is call him up or wait for him to call us or something, right?" he pressed, starting to feel more energized.

At that Oracle's grin faded though and became more subdued. "Ah, not exactly." That had Hizashi's own smile fading, looking at him in confusion as the other hero heaved a large, clearly dramatic sigh. "Hah, I'd rather not explain this, honestly. But you've already heard too much and you're _definitely_ the curious type, so..."

All at once Oracle's smile vanished, his face suddenly almost eerily _blank_ and eyes dark. The sudden shift took Hizashi by surprise, making him tense instinctively as Oracle held his gaze and spoke lowly. "What I'm about to tell you cannot be repeated. If I find out you've told _anyone_, I'll rip out your tongue, tear it into little pieces and stuff each chunk of it in every orifice in your body. Am I understood?"

A chill ran down Hizashi's spine at the cold and _very_ graphic threat, unable to suppress a shiver. His face quickly smoothed into something equally serious and he pressed his mouth into a thin line as he nodded. "You don't need to threaten me," he grumbled. "Just because my Quirk is Voice doesn't mean I don't know to keep my mouth shut."

Oracle studied him critically for a moment before nodding, and then suddenly he was back to his original carefree demeanor, a lazy half-smile on his face. The abrupt shift _back_ to his usual jovial nature left Hizashi with a severe sense of whiplash, his head actually reeling back as he blinked in surprise. Oracle's gaze flitted to the people around him, and he motioned for Hizashi to step further to the side. Hizashi did so hesitantly, feeling suddenly very wary of his fellow hero.

"Sorry for the threat, but Mail's case is special," Oracle confided, voice pitched low but thrumming with barely contained excitement and glee. "He can't use phones or show up on camera, and you can only communicate with him under very specific circumstances. You can't even _see_ him most of the time. Most people don't even realize he exists, and we prefer to keep it that way." Hizashi's confusion only grew further with each word.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, and Oracle's grin stretched even wider.

"Tell me, Mic, do you believe in ghosts?"

* * *

In a cold cement room in a tunnel in Odawara, Ashido Mina quietly comforted a shell-shocked Todoroki Shouto as he shook and stared at his hands limply. Todoroki was far from expressive even at the best of times, but to everyone in the room, his emotions in that moment were clear. At first he hadn't reacted at all to the news that Endeavor had died, but then the shock had set in, disbelief clear as he looked at everyone for signs of deceit.

Only when he looked at Ashido, who still gripped his arm with tears in her eyes and already starting to spill down her cheeks as her mouth wobbled, did his ever-stoic face finally crumple into something _broken_, and he released a sound of pure, unrestrained agony and confusion.

Almost none of the runaways could bear to look at the pair as Ashido whispered quiet apologies and rubbed his arm. A sense of shame and horror filled the room upon realizing that he _hadn't known_, some looking more guilty than others. A few of them retreated to the space behind the curtain to give them privacy, others instead slipping into the tunnel.

Todoroki Enji was not a good man. He was not a good father, nor was he a good husband. He _was_ a fantastic Pro Hero, but as far as his family was concerned he was the scum of the earth. Some might be more forgiving than others, but the man had done little to endear himself to any of his children, least of all his youngest son. That training could barely be called such, not when forced upon a child so _young_.

Yet even so, to be suddenly told that _he did not exist_—to abruptly learn that a man who had such a crucial and powerful influence on his life was _dead_...

There is a certain gravity to such revelations that defy basic logic. A certain impact that those who are not in that sort of position will ever understand.

For once, Mail _did_ understand though.

"Hah, what a poor kid..."

Mail's murmurs went unheard by the others, none of them noticing as he hovered near the ceiling. He watched the Todoroki boy with a sympathetic frown, knowing just how _jarring_ it must be. He knew the strange conflict the boy felt all too well, where you _expected_ you would feel only relief and joy at someone's death, but instead feel a sense of grief and loss too.

(Often times, he thought Kintsugi's death had been too kind, and that only made that illogical sense of grief all the more ugly.)

Sympathetic as he was though, this wasn't _this_ Todoroki's Endeavor. This Todoroki Shouto was an outsider, a displaced child who did not belong in this world and who likely still had another Endeavor waiting for him in his _own_ world. Just as this Ashido Mina had a life waiting for her with a different Kirishima Eijirou, as did Uraraka Ochako and most likely Kaminari Denki and Jirou Kyouka as well.

He turned and drifted through the walls of the tunnel to emerge into the forest, where Anjou Ran stood tapping away on her phone. When he got close he could see FacePage open on the screen, the girl sending message after message to some unknown party. He had no doubts she was texting at _least_ one of the other suspected dimension travelers at that very moment, seeing as she'd voiced suspicions Uraraka had attempted to contact Ashido.

"So there's probably at least five, not just three, huh?" Mail mused to himself quietly, rolling to "recline" on his back and stare at the cloudy sky in thought. Uraraka Ochako being displaced was not news, merely confirmation of a suspicion. He'd suspected it the moment Saki described the girl remembering Midoriya as a teenager. They _could_ have met at some point after Midoriya went missing, but with the additional memories of Ashido and Shigaraki tied to the phone, the possibility of her being from another world had been too strong to ignore.

And if meeting Midoriya was enough to spur her to run away, then chances were _he_ was from another world too.

A small smile made itself known on his face at the thought, a thrill of satisfaction and _anticipation_ coursing through him. Damn, he felt bad for these kids, but this was the opening they'd been waiting for _years_ to find. He had no idea what the immediate future held, or when he'd be able to get back to the Nighteye Agency to fill in Saki or Kas, but these kids were the ticket to finally finding _answers_.

Mail twisted his body to face the boy called both Shouji and Parasyte, the bulky teen leaning against a tree with arms crossed under his poncho. He floated closer, never shifting from his lazy recline and craning his head back to look at the teen upside-down. The mask made it hard to read his expression but the teen seemed to be lost in thought, for rather understandable reasons.

"I wonder," Mail hummed quietly. "Why did that Porter show you another world? And was it really theirs?"

He got no response, not that he expected one.

After all, even in a world full of Quirks, few could speak to the dead.

* * *

**In the Discord server (link still ends in invite/6WWwTXU), I once mentioned one character's a ghost. I was not lying.  
**

**Also to everyone who wondered how long it'd take for everyone to get into contact: here's your answer.**

**On the note of ghosts, I drew a headshot of Mail over on my Tumblr! You can find it easily by adding "tagged/mail" to the end of the URL.  
**

**Question for next time: how likely do you think it is that ghosts exist in the canon!MHA universe?**


	51. Chapter 51: We're Not Alone

Chapter 51

.::We're Not Alone::.

Shouta... did not expect this.

"Kacchan, did you get the answer to question three yet?"

"Fuck no! The question doesn't make any sense! What the hell is this bullshit?"

"Um... Math?"

"Tch, I know _that_ much Deku! But this doesn't make any _sense_!"

He _really_ did not expect this.

It took a lot of self control and years of training not to visibly react as Shouta watched his new "students" bicker. Midoriya he had expected, but the other two... Kacchan—or rather, Bakugou Katsuki, as he'd introduced himself—had an obvious temper, throwing insults at the green-haired boy as casually as saying hello. The other one, Hijack, who currently squinted at his workbook in obvious confusion, was much quieter in comparison... mainly because he had a _fucking muzzle_.

The second the trio had entered carrying books and other school supplies, every single one of Shouta's instincts blared with alarm. The _fucking muzzle_ wrapped around the purple-haired one's lower jaw made it pretty clear he wasn't exactly a willing member of the Alliance, and the warning signs only grew from there.

_ "Hey, Eraserhead," Izuku had greeted with a timid smile. "Thanks again for agreeing to tutor us. Sorry if we're bothering you." While he spoke the blond teen crossed his arms, leering at Shouta with an irritable scowl._

_ "So you're the hero Deku keeps talking about? You don't look like much."_

_ "I normally don't have a broken leg," Shouta quipped dryly, and the kid snorted and rolled his eyes._

_ "Um, a-anyways!" Izuku piped up nervously. "Th-this is Kacchan—uh, I mean—"_

_ "I can introduce myself!" the blond snapped. "My name is Bakugou Katsuki. I'm Deku's bodyguard or some bullshit like that. I don't know, Shittyraki told Deku, not me."_

_ "He didn't make it too clear," Izuku said almost sullenly. "He just said you guys were part of my 'party.' He called you a tank...?" He trailed off and shook his head. "A-anyways, uh, this is..." He trailed off and looked to the purple one, who had pulled out a _phone_._

_ "_My name is Hijack,_" an electronic voice declared. "_What am I, Mi-do-ri-ya?_" He directed the last bit towards Izuku—whose surname must be Midoriya, apparently, and Shouta silently decided to just use that from now on because he was NOT on a first-name basis with the brat—who looked a bit startled before realizing what he meant._

_ "Oh, you mean in the party? Uh, I guess you're the rogue...? Tomura-nii mentioned a rogue and tank, and Kacch—I mean, _Bakugou_, isn't really a rogue, obviously, no offense. And tanks are more front-line fighters, and you don't seem like you're built for that. Not that that's bad!" Midoriya added hastily. "But your skills are obviously way more suited for stealth and sneak attacks, so—"_

_ "Deku, shut up," Bakugou interrupted, and the green-haired boy clamped his mouth shut. The blond focused on Shouta again, the hero eying him warily as the teen approached and plopped onto the floor not too far away. "You're supposed to be our teacher or some shit, so if we've got any questions, you've got to answer. Got it?"_

_ "I'm aware," Shouta replied briskly, and the brat grunted and grabbed one of the books. The man watched warily up until the boy crossed his legs and the hem of his pants pulled up, and he caught sight of a metal band with a blinking light around the boy's ankle. Eyes widening just a fraction, Shouta had to quickly look away and keep his expression cool, gaze darting towards "Hijack" to see an identical band around his own ankle._

The kids were prisoners, both of them. Midoriya was the only one who didn't have that anklet with the ominously blinking light, making the distinction all the clearer. The thought made his blood boil, though Shouta didn't show it. He knew some villain groups liked to recruit by kidnapping kids with powerful Quirks, but to actually see it with his own eyes was something else entirely.

And he was powerless to do _anything_. Shouta was just as trapped as them, fucking collared to the ground in a windowless cell with a broken leg. Never had he felt so _helpless_ as a Pro Hero, faced with someone in desperate need of aid while he could do _nothing_. The fact Midoriya had brought them here felt like rubbing salt in the wound.

He quietly ground his teeth as he tried to calm himself. Getting agitated wouldn't do any good, they needed him to be composed. These kids seemed calm enough right now, but they were still _victims_, two kids forced into a wildly unfamiliar and _dangerous_ situation. They needed a sense of stability and comfort, and seeing a Pro Hero so worked up would only upset them further.

To that end he focused on Hijack, who continued to squint down at his workbook. "Kid, you look confused," he commented, and it took a second for Hijack to realize Shouta was talking to him. It felt weird calling the kid by an obvious codename instead of an _actual_ name, especially when the kid was a prisoner, so he wasn't too keen on using it. When the teen finally glanced at him in surprise he continued, "I'm guessing you're more behind than those two."

The kid seemed to hesitate, and then pulled out his phone. The phone which Shouta had quickly realized had no calling or internet connection capabilities, given to him only so he could use a text to speech app because _he couldn't talk _with the_ fucking muzzle_. Dammit, just thinking about it made him want to growl.

"_I haven't been to school since I was twelve._"

Shouta's ire was quickly forgotten at the response and his eyes widened at the admission. While he vaguely recalled Midoriya mentioned he'd dropped out, actually _hearing_ it from him was something else. "How long have you been here?" he demanded before he could stop himself. The other two had stopped their bickering to tune into their conversation, and Midoriya perked up.

"Oh, no, no, no, he hasn't been here _that_ long!" he said hastily, and Shouta had to fight down a flinch at the kid's voice and the urge to glare as the brat waved his hands. "Hijack dropped out and ran away! He's been living on the streets as a vigilante, but—wait, did you say _twelve!?_" He whirled to face the purple-haired teen with wide eyes and a hanging jaw. Even Bakugou seemed stunned, just gawking in obvious disbelief.

The purple-haired kid just shrugged, tapping away on his phone. "_That's when I started ditching classes. Dropped out for real when I was thirteen and ran away._" Shouta quickly did the mental math while tears started to gather in Midoriya's eyes.

"Y-you.. You've been living on the streets _that_ long?" He sounded dangerously close to crying, while next to him Bakugou just stared.

"Damn," he breathed quietly. "Fuckin' hell, Eyebags. You said you were young, but not _that_ young. You're tougher than I thought." His eyes held not horror (well, not _much_), but _respect_—a dangerous thing in Shouta's opinion.

Hijack represented the _other_ extreme end of the spectrum he didn't like to dwell on: the kids who ran away because of their Quirks. The kid said he was thirteen when he dropped out, and he looked to be closer to sixteen now. Doing the mental math, it seemed fairly obvious he ran away after the UA Massacre, a thought which made Shouta's stomach curl unpleasantly until he pushed it away.

"You're likely behind on all of this material then," he said bluntly. "Did you try to keep up your education at all?"

The kid shrugged as he typed a reply. "_We worked on some history and science books. Never really bothered with math though._"

Shouta sighed and shook his head, filing away that casual use of "_we_" for later. "What we really need is a comprehensive assessment test for you, but that's probably not an option. Just forget about math for now and see if you can understand the other subjects."

Hijack nodded, putting aside the workbook to grab one of the other textbooks instead. The other two put aside their own math books as well to pick up whatever one he had grabbed, and Shouta leaned back with a quiet sigh. The motion had him suppressing a wince, the subtle shift reminding him he had a broken leg.

Damn, his leg still ached... His mouth thinned as he glanced at the pill for only a fraction of a second. The brat had _claimed_ it was a painkiller, but he didn't trust it. It didn't matter how nice the boy might seem, Midoriya Izuku was still connected to the Villain Alliance. Shouta had no reason to trust him, and he had even _less_ after this.

Bakugou Katsuki and Hijack were victims and prisoners of the Alliance, clearly captured with the intent of having them work with and _for_ Midoriya. Whether the boy himself had picked them barely mattered. A normal civilian wouldn't need a 'party' or whatever they liked to call their little group, and if they really _were_ equals then Hijack wouldn't be _fucking muzzled_. If Midoriya was willing to overlook _that_, then the villains had obviously influenced him more than Shouta had thought.

For now, Shouta would need to reanalyze the kid, and keep a close eye on the dynamic in this group. As far as he was concerned, Midoriya Izuku was now at the very least a probable accessory to the Alliance's schemes. He could only hope the kid still wasn't completely corrupted, or none of them would be able to get out of here.

* * *

_They weren't alone._

Ochako had already suspected it from her messages with Ashido, but to get the _actual_ confirmation had her heart soaring. Even now she kept rereading the few messages she'd gotten last night from the mysterious Nettmegg. Nettmegg had quickly made it clear she was a stranger, but she was one of the friends Ashido had mentioned in their brief conversation before Ochako ran away. It hadn't taken long for her to dispel any doubts about her identity.

Nettmegg hadn't outright said it of course, she had to be frustratingly obtuse in case any of their accounts got compromised. (You know, _again._) She'd said enough to make it clear to Ochako that she was talking about Class 1-A though. '_Does a boy with a pink head with a pet rabbit sound familiar?_ _And a punk rock girl and a girl who says 'kero' a lot?_'

Ochako had responded in the affirmative, recognizing Kouda, Jirou and Tsu-chan right away. All three ran in different social circles, so the idea of someone identifying them specifically couldn't be a coincidence. Still, just to be safe she'd asked, '_Do you know about a boy with a bird head? And a boy with green hair, and a super-manly guy with red hair?_'

There had been a brief pause on Nettmegg's end, and then, '_Yeah, I know them all. Everything checks out. Things are messy here so we can't talk tonight. Will reach out tomorrow. But look up the vigilante scene in Hosu._'

The conversation ended there but that had led to a whole _different_ rabbit hole, one which kept Ochako up for half the night reading article after article. The 1-A Vigilantes had exploded onto the scene just shy of two weeks ago, and she buzzed with excitement as she recognized the costumes and their Quirks as dead ringers for Jirou and Kaminari. Becoming vigilantes was _genius_ on their parts, the 1-A branding guaranteed their classmates would recognize them.

Ochako wanted to tell Deku right away, but she forced herself to refrain for the moment. Deku had messaged her yesterday to say he'd be starting quasi-tutoring sessions with Aizawa-sensei along with Bakugou and Shinsou. The thought of how their teacher would react to the other two teens made her wince sympathetically. Showing up with obvious prisoners would most likely tank whatever trust Deku had managed to build so far, so he was understandably stressed.

For that reason, Ochako had decided to wait until _after_ the undoubtedly disastrous first tutoring session to tell him any of this. He needed all his focus for the meeting, and telling him about it now would just make it harder for him to concentrate. Besides, telling him over text about something so _major_ didn't feel right.

They'd been hopeful there might be more people than Ashido, but now they had evidence there were at _least_ two more. Ochako had already followed the profiles for the 1-A Vigilantes on FacePage and Tweeter, and she had written out so many aborted comments on their posts and photos. She wanted nothing more than to reach out to them and confirm it once and for all, but... where did she even _begin_?

There was just—just _so much_ to go over. No one seemed likely to suspect Deku was here too, and she doubted _any_ of them would predict him being stuck with this world's equivalent of the League of Villains. Honestly, Deku's situation was what really made her hold back from reaching out just yet. Ultimately, it wasn't her place to tell them about it. _He_ was the one caught up in it; she only had his secondhand accounts, so he'd be able to explain it better himself. She couldn't call them and explain what _she'd_ been up to without explaining all that, either, and doing that felt like a violation of his privacy.

That thought ran through her mind as she looked at a message from Nettmegg asking if she had a burner phone so they could call and talk that way. She bit her lip as she considered it, before finally typing a reply.

'_I do, but before we talk I need to take care of some MAJOR stuff. I'll message you my number when I'm done, is that okay?_'

She got a simple '_okay_' in response a few seconds later, and Ochako switched over to the chat with Deku to send a message. He should be with Aizawa now, so he'd see it after the tutoring session when he'd hopefully have the rest of the day free.

'_Can you come over today? We have a LOT to talk about._'

* * *

Kuroe's house was very quiet on Saturday morning. Even as they all sat in the kitchen eating a late breakfast, no one really spoke. Not Mina, not Kiri, not An-chan, and _especially_ not Todoroki.

Mina felt simultaneously overjoyed by Todoroki's presence, and also like _total garbage_. The fact she wasn't alone still sent surges of joy all through her body, making her want to leap up and scream and dance in celebration. She already _knew_ others were here, but actually _meeting_ someone else from her world had filled her with a whole new level of joy and relief. But as excited as she was, the revelation from last night put a damper on any celebrations.

_Todoroki didn't know Endeavor was dead in this world._

The fact he hadn't known still left her horrified and guilt-filled, even if she had no control over it. Mina had learned about Endeavor's death while relentlessly searching her phone for information on her very first day in this twisted, screwed-up world. He had died battling a whole _horde_ of villains a year prior in a battle that lasted _hours_. Mina hadn't read up on it much since she had other priorities, but she could tell his death had shaken all of Japan.

After a whole year though, his death didn't exactly get talked about every day anymore. From what Todoroki had explained, he hadn't had a chance to do much research on this world at all, and he'd specifically avoided looking up Endeavor. The fact he even saw that broadcast about Tokoyami had been a total stroke of luck. It made sense he wouldn't know about Endeavor.

Still, she couldn't imagine how it must feel to find out so suddenly. Todoroki had all but shut down after finding out; she would never forget that strangled cry he made once he realized they were serious, his face so full of anguish and confusion. Mina knew there was _something_ going on between Todoroki and his dad, especially after what he'd said last night (which was really concerning), but it was still _his dad_.

After that, the rest of the night had been kind of a lost cause. Most of it had been spent just kind of comforting him, while the others took turns basically getting everyone caught up on, well, _everything_. It turned out An-chan was the coordinator for this whole network of runaways based out of Odawara, complete with cool-sounding codenames for everyone. They didn't tell them about _everyone_, but it was still so weird to see so many of her classmates and friends there with none of them recognizing her at all.

They also explained Todoroki had told them about coming from another dimension, but they'd decided he was probably being brainwashed or something and decided to play along and keep an eye on him. Mina _would_ be offended on his behalf, but given he was looking for Tokoyami and Gentle Criminal, she guessed she couldn't blame them for being cautious. Their concern came from a good place, even if it _was_ stupid and wrong.

On that note, Gentle Criminal had moved on to Hosu on Wednesday, but they'd hidden that from him, which Mina _did_ take offense on his behalf. Apparently they were concerned he'd run off after him. Todoroki didn't really seem to be in the right state of mind to care about that though, and they left not long after that.

So now she, Todoroki, Kiri and An-chan were just sitting in Kuroe's kitchen eating breakfast and just being all-around quiet. Todoroki had spent the night there too, and they'd had no problem giving up the guest room bed to him. An-chan had her _own_ bedroom here, so Mina and Kiri just camped out in the living room, though they didn't talk. They all had a _lot_ to think about, and for once she wasn't in the mood to talk.

Luckily for them, though, An-chan was a girl of _action_.

"So, they responded, right?" Mina asked, breaking the heavy silence. "You said last night you messaged everyone and they all responded, right?"

An-chan hummed around a mouthful of cereal and nodded. "They did. I didn't talk to them too long, and they never outright said their names. But they ended up answering enough questions to confirm that they've got the same set of memories as you guys. They all want to have a phone call just to confirm this is the real deal."

Mina's heart _soared_ at the prospect, buzzing in her seat excitedly. "I can't believe this is really happening!" she exclaimed, turning to look at her fellow dimension jumper. "Isn't this great, Todoroki? There's more people!"

"It is," he agreed quietly, and it wasn't the _bad_ kind of quiet much to Mina's relief, just the regular level of Todoroki quietness. Some of the shock seemed to have worn off overnight thankfully, and he seemed much more composed than he'd been last night as he glanced at An-chan. "When will we call them?"

"I gave them all my number, the vigilantes said they'd call after their patrol," she replied. "Gravity girl said she had some stuff to do first, and would send me her number when she was done." That was a bit disappointing, since Mina had been talking to Uraraka the longest out of everyone in this mess. She really wanted to know what was going on with her. However, she didn't let the disappointment hold her back.

They weren't alone, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

They weren't alone.

Kyouka had honestly been starting to lose hope until last night when Kaminari's sudden hysteric laughter had led her to prematurely ditch her bath to check on him. When he'd shown her the messages, she'd been blown away and too stunned to speak. Pinkie, Heights Alliance, and Chargebolt meant more to them than words could describe.

Kaminari had been insistent on messaging this "Nettmegg" and straight-up questioning if they were from Class 1-A. He'd even already sent a friend request so they could message privately. Kyouka ultimately had to wrestle the laptop away from him and handle the response herself. While she wanted to ask the same questions, she knew they couldn't be too bold or open. The "asking for a friend bit" left her wary and suspicious, so she played it cool.

'_The names mean something. Heights Alliance is a building, right?_'

'_Yep. Do you know Pinkie's first name choice? And who rejected it? And one more __question: who made the giant glacier, and where?_'

And that had been what eliminated any lingering doubts. The glacier Todoroki made at the Sports Festival had been _legendary_, and not the kind of thing someone would randomly reference. Combined with all the other questions, there was no doubt this person knew about it specifically.

That had really been all the confirmation they really needed. After the Kyouka replied (keeping it vague of course, '_a boy with two-colored hair at the Sports Festival_'), Nettmegg had explained she wasn't part of Class 1-A but reaching out on behalf of someone who was. It had been disappointing that she was a stranger, but the confirmation that someone else _was_ here overshadowed that.

Nettmegg wrapped it up by typing, '_I can't talk much tonight, there's stuff going on here. Can we talk tomorrow?_' That led to a brief discussion ultimately ending with Nettmegg promising to send a phone number to call after setting up some other stuff.

Now she and Kaminari had just finished wrapping up an impromptu morning patrol, and Kyouka was on her way back to Kaminari's apartment after buying a burner phone. The spontaneous Saturday morning patrol honestly felt like a dumb idea, since (as Kaminari put it) most people liked to sleep in on Saturday mornings, _including_ criminals. They'd only done it because they'd felt too pent up to just sit around until ten—the earliest time Nettmegg said she'd be available—and even a quiet patrol would be productive.

As it turned out, it wasn't _that_ quiet though. Some villains turned out to have the same idea as Kaminari, so they ended up taking care of a robbery at a jewelry store. The would-be thieves had been left restrained for police, and they'd split up so Kaminari could drop off their gear at the warehouse while Kyouka went to buy the phone. It was a little bit before eleven now, so Nettmegg should be able to answer the call right away. Just knowing they'd be talking to someone in their situation... It felt unreal.

Based on the focus of the messages, it seemed pretty obvious that Ashido was the one trapped here. Kyouka... had mixed feelings on that. Ashido was cool and they got along pretty well, and Kyouka was _glad_ they weren't alone here, but she was far from her first choice for a situation like _this_. This situation seemed to call for a good amount of brains, and Ashido... well, that _definitely_ wasn't her strength. Kyouka wasn't used to being the sole brains of the operation, but so far it was shaping up to be that way.

Hopefully someone else was here too. They still had a few classmates whose current statuses were total unknowns. Maybe one of _them_ would be able to help.

It didn't take long before she was back at the apartment. Kaminari had yet to arrive, so she unpacked the phone and then went to the kitchen to grab a post-patrol snack and opened the laptop to open the messenger. The one with Nettmegg's phone number was near the bottom, and she pulled out the burner to plug it in so they could call the second Kaminari arrived before focusing on her snack.

By the time she'd finished half a bag of pretzels he finally showed up, practically slamming the door open and shut. He fumbled to lock it before beelining right for her, having to practically skid to a stop before he crashed into the table. "Okay, we're doing this now, right?" he asked eagerly, and Kyouka nodded as she grabbed the phone.

"Let's do this," she said, and Kaminari plopped into the other chair while she hit dial. One ring, two, three—

"_Hello?_" They both wilted a bit at the unfamiliar voice, disappointed even if they'd known it was a possibility, but quickly pushed past it.

"Is this Nettmegg?" Kyouka asked, straight to business.

"_Yeah. I'm guessing this is—_"

"_JIROOOUU!_" They startled as a familiar shout suddenly rang out over the phone, their heads snapping up to stare at each other wide-eyed.

"Ashido?" Kaminari blurted, and they heard a delighted shriek.

"_I KNEW IT! I _knew_ it was you guys! See Todoroki, I _told_ you!_"

That had them both bolting upright, their eyes even wider as another, much quieter voice responded, "_I never said I didn't believe you, though?_"

"Wait, _Todoroki_?" Kyouka asked sharply. "Are you saying you both—?" She stopped herself short, unsure how to finish the question. Fortunately, she didn't need to.

"_We are!_" Ashido answered enthusiastically. "_And it's not just us, either!_ _Uraraka's here too! We haven't actually called her yet, but we've sent messages and it's totally her!_"

And once again, the situation improved. They'd found not just one person from 1-A, but _three_. "Holy shit," Kyouka whispered, while Kaminari cheered in sheer relief.

"We're not alone!" he cried as he threw his arms into the air with a hysterical laugh. "_We're not alone!_ There's more people! Oh man, do you think anyone else is here too?"

"_That's actually what I was hoping to figure out,_" Nettmegg quipped dryly, and the duo tensed at the reminder an outsider was listening in. The pair exchanged wary glances, now much more on edge.

"No offense, but who are you again?" Kaminari asked warily.

"_Oh, that's An-chan, she's one of my best friends in this world!_" Ashido replied cheerfully for her, but then added, "_Uh, I think, anyway. An-chan, we ARE best friends, right?_"

"_...At this point, yeah, I guess so?_" Nettmegg sounded more amused than anything.

"So we can trust her, then?" Kyouka pressed, just to be safe.

"_Absolutely!_" Ashido confirmed, not an ounce of hesitation. "_An-chan's like, super smart, so she'll be a HUGE help! Oh, and Kiri's here too!_" Kyouka and Kaminari both perked up, but soon slumped when she sheepishly tacked on, "_But he's, uh, not _our_ Kiri though. But he's still here and helping out!_"

"_Uh, hi._" Kirishima's voice sounded over the speakers, more timid and nervous than Kyouka had ever heard him. "_I'm uh, probably not gonna be much help, so sorry about that. I just kinda got swept up with Ashido, I guess..._"

It was disappointing to find out about another person who hadn't come over, but the last part made Kyouka fondly roll her eyes. Yep, that sounded _just_ like Ashido to drag in another world's Kirishima. For his part Kaminari didn't seem too disheartened. "Eh, you might not be able to do much but it's still good to have you here," he decided with a grin. "Once a bro, always a bro! Even if you're not our Kirishima."

"_Uh, thanks, I guess,_" Kirishima replied, and he sounded just a little more relaxed as he added, "_I'll totally try to help however I can! Even if it's just helping you guys figure out, you know, what you don't know about this world and stuff. We _definitely_ had to help Ashido a lot._"

"Thanks, bro!"

"_I thought we'd ask some more questions to make sure this all checks out, but looks like we're skipping that,_" Nettmegg quipped dryly. "_Screw it, we've got a lot to cover so let's just get to the point._" Kyouka and Kaminari both sat a bit straighter at that, all business now.

"Ashido said Uraraka is here too, right?" she pressed.

"_Yeah. I messaged her last night and her answers checked out, so all signs point to them being _someone_ from 1-A. But we haven't made full contact yet so we don't know it's her for _sure_ yet._"

"_It totally is her though!_" Ashido piped up. "_She called herself _Infinity Girl_! And THEN I got a friend request from '1A Space Rescue Hero'!_" Yep, that definitely sounded like Uraraka. "_But she ran away before I could actually talk to her about, you know, everything. I didn't even get to reply to the new friend request before _we_ ran away._"

That last bit startled them. "Wait, why'd she do _that_?" Kaminari asked.

"_I don't know!_" Ashido whined. "_We barely got to talk at all before she suddenly left! And then Midnight showed up because she ran away!_" Wait, what?

"_Anyways,_" Nettmegg continued pointedly before they could ask questions (because _seriously, what the hell?_). "_She said she had to do something first, and she'd reach out when she was done. So we have two options. We can start catching up now and do a rehash after she contacts us, or we can wait for her to make contact and go over everything at once._" Kyouka and Kaminari exchanged quiet looks, the latter biting his lip.

"I kinda want to hurry up and do something _now_, but if Uraraka's here..." He trailed off, and Kyouka sighed.

"Honestly, I'd rather go over this once," she admitted, scratching her cheek. "We've, uh, been pretty busy."

"_I'll say,_" Nettmegg snorted.

"_Is the vigilante scene in Hosu that active?_" That was Todoroki this time, sounding genuinely curious.

"Among other things," Kyouka replied vaguely, thinking of the stuff with Yaoyorozu and Iida. "We'll get into it after Uraraka joins in, I guess."

"_Sounds good,_" Nettmegg agreed easily. "_I'll call you up when I get a chance—oh, actually, one thing before we go,_" she said. "_Ashido and Todoroki gave me a list of your classmates, to see if we can find anyone else here. __We want to figure out who else might be caught up in this. Chances are you guys aren't the only ones, so might as well cross off some more names while waiting on Uraraka or whoever."_

"_We've already crossed out Kiri obviously,_" Ashido added. "_And we've met a couple other people, but they _definitely_ don't remember._"

That got their interest. "Who'd you meet?" Kaminari asked. There was a pause on the other end, and then some muffled mumbling the phone couldn't really pick up.

"_We can't say the names for safety reasons,_" Todoroki finally said. "_But I've met four people from Class 1-A, and three from Class 1-B._"

The vigilante duo frowned at the information, particularly the last part. The idea of someone from Class 1-B being here never even occurred to them. They glanced at each other before Kyouka spoke. "We haven't met anyone from Class 1-B—"

"Actually, there's one guy in my math class," Kaminari cut in, looking almost sheepish. "I don't know his name, but he was kinda short, had gray hair...? He was the guy who dropped out after the second round along with Ojiro." He shrugged feebly before perking up as he remembered something else. "Oh, and I saw that green-haired girl too!"

"Green-haired girl?" Kyouka repeated, and he nodded.

"Yeah! The one that teamed up with those two other girls in the cavalry battle!" Kyouka actually kinda remembered her. She'd been on that all-girl team in the cavalry battle. "She wasn't at school here every day though, she showed up like, once a week, I think? I think the teachers called her Tokage...?"

"Come to think of it, I think I saw her too," Kyouka muttered, the description jarring her memories. "I think she's in one of my classes." She didn't clearly remember her from the Sports Festival, but it reminded her of the online classes in this world. One of the students had gotten her eye for some reason she couldn't place, so it'd make sense if she subconsciously recognized her from UA.

"_Okay, that's neat and all, but anyone from 1-A?_" Ashido pressed impatiently.

"Right!" Kaminari nodded. "Okay. So, first off, we found Mineta's FacePage profile on like, day one—"

"_Boo,_" Ashido cut in flatly, and Kyouka smirked while Kaminari grinned at the lack of enthusiasm.

"Yeah, figured you'd feel that way," he said. "Anyways, he's obviously not caught up in this or we would've reached out to him by now. But THEN, on our very first patrol we ran into _Sero_, and he works at a convenience store here! He, uh, doesn't remember either," he added sheepishly. "He helped us tie up the criminal though, which was awesome! Then later we met Satou on a different patrol. And—yeah, he doesn't know _us_, either. He has an awesome Instagram about his baking though!"

"_Oh man, I miss his stuff _so_ bad,_" Ashido groaned. "_Remember that cake he made the day before we all ended up here?_"

"Oh man, how could I forget!" Kaminari whined. "Dang it, my mouth's watering just thinking about it!"

"_It was good,_" Todoroki commented, and that made Kaminari pause.

"Hold on, you don't think...?" Kyouka quickly figured out where his trail of thought had gone and rolled her eyes.

"Kaminari, if it was the cake, Satou would be here too," she said flatly. "So would Kirishima, all the girls, Sero, Shouji and Midoriya." Kaminari sagged in disappointment, and they heard a snort from the other end.

"_Well, that's one theory down,_" Nettmegg said dryly. "_Since we're on the topic, any chance you've met a certain nerdy jock and a rich heiress at school?_" The reference to Iida and Yaoyorozu had Kyouka raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, but that's a bit more... complicated," she said. "They're not from 1-A either, but we should probably save the rest of the details for the full story. That should be everyone we've met though."

"_Fine by me. Thanks, that really whittles down the list a bit. I'll go over the full list of who's missing once we have Uraraka on here. There's some... _special_ cases on here that we should probably all discuss at once._" Well, that was ominous. "_For now, this is probably a good stopping point. We'll call back when Uraraka finally gets in touch._"

"Sounds good to me," Kyouka agreed while Kaminari nodded.

"Yeah. Guess we can't do much until we get her side, huh?"

"_Nope, not really._"

"_It's so awesome to hear your voices!_" Ashido shouted. "_I miss you guys SO much! I can't wait to talk to you again!_"

"_We haven't even hung up yet though?_" Todoroki sounded faintly confused, and Ashido made a scoffing sound.

"_I still don't want to hang up! A phone call isn't nearly enough! I want to see you guys _right now_!_" Kyouka smiled as he listened to her whine, able to easily imagine her flailing her arms and throwing her head back melodramatically.

"Yeah, we miss you too," she admitted, and heard a gasp.

"_Kyouka-chan! I _knew_ you loved us! Ugh, I just want to go to Hosu and hug you _right now_!_"

"_That's probably a bad idea when there's a ton of people searching for us,_" Kirishima pointed out, and Ashido made a dejected, drawn-out rumbling sound halfway between a groan and a whine that made Kaminari loudly snort.

"We'll talk details on how to meet up later," Kyouka promised. "Until then, call us whenever. We'll be free all day. Later."

"_Later,_" Anjou replied, and then the call ended, leaving the apartment in silence. After that they sat in silence for a few minutes, just processing... _everything_. Then, Kaminari gave an excited whoop as he leaped to his feet.

"_We're not alone_!" he cheered, and Kyouka found herself smiling as she watched him begin to dance around the living room. If she'd been any more the carefree type she might have joined him. They weren't alone, and that's all that mattered. Things were finally looking up for them.

* * *

**This chapter's a bit later than I usually like to post them, but I had to do a lot of editing and had barely any sleep last night so it was harder to focus on it. ****This is the first of a series of frankenchapters. You see, originally I wrote out two separate phone calls. First I had Jirou and Kaminari, starting here and continuing into the next chapter, and THEN Uraraka calling later after she has a chance to fill in Izuku on everything. Total chapters spent between those two calls: 51-55. ****Then I realized that five chapters dedicated to two phone calls was ridiculously slow pacing even by my standards, especially since one of those chapters consisted mostly of rehashing the first call (even in just summary form).**

**So cue some big-time editing/rehashing to mix the two calls together. New end chapter: 54. That one's still currently unfinished, but it's like 90% done so I'm on track to wrap it all up. Honestly, I might even look into trying to see if I can merge two of THOSE chapters together. ****So yeah. Next couple chapters miiiight be a little rough because I'm cutting and pasting parts of conversations into different characters' POVs. But yay, everyone's FINALLY getting connected!**

**On a brighter note: Aizawa and prisoner bonding time! Uraraka scheduling a secret rendezvous with Deku! PHONE CALLS AND CONFIRMATION THEY'RE NOT ALONE! Things are finally looking up for everyone~  
**

**Question for next time: ****how do you think the characters will react to the villains' canon counterparts after they get home? (Specifically Izuku and Shigaraki/the rest of the League, or Todoroki and Uraraka with Dabi. You KNOW Todoroki's going to find out the truth by the end of the story.)  
**


	52. Chapter 52: Calmness is Overrated

Chapter 52

.::Calmness is Overrated::.

"_Fucking asshole, get back here!_"

Bakugou's roar rang through the tiny cell as his racer was sent careening off the track by a blue shell on the television screen. Shinsou looked fairly smug as his own racer passed him to take up the number one position, a satisfied glint in his eye as the blond shouted in aggravation. Izuku just watched silently from Shinsou's bed, absently tuning out the string of colorful curses and threats while he scratched Sushi's ear.

At the moment the trio sat in Shinsou's room playing Mario Kart. After spending two hours going over schoolwork with Aizawa-sensei they'd decided to take a brief break from planning, and actually _play_ the game like Izuku always claimed they did. They'd reasoned that it would help cement their story if people asked them about the game, and that a little bit of leisure would be good for their stress levels.

And Izuku had a _lot_ of stress right now.

Volunteering to sit out the first few rounds had been a no-brainer for him. They only had two controllers after all. Shigaraki had taken one with him after another surprise play session on Thursday evening, and then Kacchan had "_accidentally_" broken another when they tried Neko Café Manager again (for some reason none of them could explain). He wasn't in the mood to deal with Bakugou's temper or Shinsou's ruthless playing style anyway.

...In retrospect, those exact reasons _probably_ made it a bad idea for the pair to play against each other, but what was done was done. Izuku just had to hope they wouldn't try to murder each other by the end of it.

As they started the final lap he zoned out from the game, thinking over the disastrous tutoring session from that morning. Aizawa hadn't reacted _too_ strongly, but Izuku knew the man well enough to recognize how much it had absolutely rattled him. The man had spent a majority of the time glaring at him, as if he blamed _Izuku_ for Bakugou and Shinsou being prisoners. (Which... might not be _entirely_ wrong.) As far as Izuku could tell, the only thing working in their favor was that they'd convinced Kurogiri they didn't need a guard stationed inside the cell at all times. That would have been a disaster. Either way, it was clear he'd have a _lot_ more work to do now.

If he wasn't glaring at Izuku, Aizawa was often glaring at the anklets instead though. Every time Izuku noticed him looking at the bands, it reminded him they _still_ didn't know how to remove them. Since leaving the cell, he'd found that a much safer and less stressful topic to consider.

His brief conversation with Uraraka about them echoed in his head. The possibility of the anklets needing key fobs hadn't occurred to him, but he _really_ hoped that was the case. Like he'd told her back then, the only other alternative he could think of was that the anklets weren't _designed_ to be removable, seeing as Shigaraki could just disintegrate them instead. Or maybe someone had a lock-picking Quirk like she suggested, it'd certainly be a good fit for villains...

He snapped back into the present as Bakugou let out a victorious howl. "HA! TAKE THAT, LOSER!" Looks like he'd won, and Izuku blinked in surprise as he saw the final times were within a second of each other, the closest he'd seen yet.

"Woah, that was really close!" he exclaimed. "Good job!" His sudden shout startled Sushi enough to make her jerk away from his hand, hopping out of his lap with a displeased mewl. Izuku flashed her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Sushi." Whether Sushi accepted his apology remained to be seen, the feline plopping onto Shinsou's lap instead. He happily set down the controller to begin stroking her back, Sushi arching into the touch, while Bakugou huffed and turned to face Izuku.

"Okay Deku, what the hell are you moping over now?"

_Leave it to Kacchan to get straight to the point._ Izuku internally groaned as he asked, "What do you mean?"

"You've been mumbling to yourself for the past five minutes," Bakugou pointed out flatly, and Izuku had to suppress a flinch. "I wasn't paying attention because I was busy kicking this loser's ass, but I know I heard you mention Shittyraki. Something's obviously on your mind, and no way it has nothing to do with this shithole. _Spill it._"

Izuku sighed and nodded. There wasn't any point in putting it off, so he quickly summed up his conversation with Uraraka and her thoughts on the anklets. Once he finished the others considered the information thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Bakugou muttered to himself. "Guess we'll have to look for the key." Shinsou cocked his head to the side, picking up his phone to type on the text-to-speech app. Given he had one hand firmly resting on Sushi's head, it took a few extra seconds to type his message.

"_I know it can be removed,_" he said. "_Toga mentioned removing it a couple times while flirting with me._" Izuku and Bakugou _both_ winced at that. Toga had made no attempt at hiding her creepy infatuation with Shinsou in front of Bakugou when she'd escorted the latter out of his cell, so he'd gotten a firsthand look at her crush. Needless to say, _all_ of them agreed that it was better to keep Toga away from him.

"Okay, so she'd probably have a key then," Izuku said, very pointedly pushing the thought away. "As far as I know her Quirk just lets her transform into other people, so I can't see her using _that_ to remove it." Pausing, he then added, "Uh, on that note, she needs blood to transform. So... Yeah." Both of them looked a bit shocked at that, and after a few seconds Bakugou snorted.

"Of course she does," he grumbled under his breath. "Creepy ass Quirk for a creepy psycho girl..." He shook his head and added, "We still don't know what the thing looks like. Could be a remote, could be some weird key fob thing like for cars. We'll have to look into it later. At least that Eraser guy doesn't have one. Not that I saw, anyway."

"I haven't noticed one either," Izuku murmured to himself. "Maybe he _does_ have one and it's just hidden, but..." He grimaced. "They probably figured chaining him down and breaking his leg was enough."

"Yeah, that _does_ make this stupid jailbreak harder," Bakugou muttered with a frown. "Hero or not, we're gonna have to end up lugging him around when we bust out of here, aren't we?"

"Yeah, definitely," Izuku sighed. "I still don't know _how_ we'll get him out. Hijack's probably tall enough to carry him, but..."

"_I'm out of shape,_" Hijack typed after Izuku trailed off. "_I don't know if I can carry an adult._"

"I probably could, but I'm better with my hands free if we run into trouble," Bakugou said, scowling at his palms. "Deku, don't you _somehow_ have some super strength Quirk now?"

"Y-yeah, I could lift him easy, but... I'm not that, uh, big." Izuku sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. Had the situation not been so serious, the mental image of him trying to carry Aizawa would be comical. Piggyback ride? Awkward as hell, and Aizawa's broken leg would probably be hard to get a good grip on anyway. Fireman carry? Aizawa's waist was easily wider than Izuku's shoulder, it'd probably just end up digging into the man's middle. Also, that one probably wouldn't give decent support for his bad leg either. Princess/bridal carry? No. Just, _no_.

No matter how he pictured it, the end result would be ridiculous. Maybe the others were imagining it too, because Shinsou gave a snort and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no, I don't think you could even carry the Vigilante Wonder over here without looking dumb," Kacchan declared, flashing a vicious grin as Izuku pouted at him.

"Then why'd you suggest it in the first place!?"

"Because _someone's_ got to come up with ideas, and you're too busy moping to do anything actually _productive_."

"_Can we get a wheelchair?_" Shinsou suggested before Izuku could retort, and he had to pause to consider it.

"I... maybe? This place _did_ used to be some sort of medical facility, so there might still be wheelchairs around... I haven't seen any though, and I don't know where they'd be. Maybe if I ask Kurogiri... But I'd need a good excuse to ask him for one..."

"_We want to have a wheelchair race down the hall,_" Shinsou's phone intoned, and for a second both Izuku and Bakugou were dead silent as they stared at him. He stared back, perfectly straight faced (or as much as he could be with the muzzle), and then Bakugou—

Kacchan _laughed_.

"Damn, it's stupid but it'll work!" he cackled, doubling over and pounding his knee with a fist. "We'll get some of the other villain bozos in on it to really sell it! Let's see if any of those bastards can beat my explosions!" Izuku found himself smiling faintly as Shinsou snorted in amusement, lilac eyes glimmering with glee while Kacchan's hands lit up with small explosions.

It was a ridiculous, childish excuse, but then, they _were_ just a bunch of bored teenagers. Giving a more serious reason would open them up to way more scrutiny than something silly like this. Based on all the weird adventures described in his journal, a wheelchair race wasn't even the weirdest idea he'd come up with.

His smile faded then as he glanced at the door. The room didn't have a clock and he didn't have his phone, but Kurogiri had dropped off lunch just before this latest race, so it should probably be early afternoon. "I should go message Uraraka about all this," he commented. "She might have some ideas too."

"Fine by me," Bakugou said, picking up his controller. "I can go back to kicking this loser's ass while you're gone."

"_In your dreams,_" Shinsou typed before giving Sushi a final pat and grabbing his own controller, and Izuku smiled faintly as he left. Thankfully they had gotten permission to let Bakugou and Shinsou hang out alone in Shinsou's cell as long as Izuku locked the door behind him and returned Bakugou to his room by curfew. It was a small step, but it was progress.

Izuku returned to his bedroom where he'd left his phone, quickly opening FacePage. Right away he noticed a new message already waiting from Uraraka, and he perked up when she saw her asking him to come over. If she wanted to meet in person, she must have learned something _big_. Most likely she'd finally gotten in contact with Ashido and confirmed she was from their world, and wanted to go over what to tell her.

Izuku glanced at the clock to check the time before making up his mind, pocketing his phone and calling out. "Seiko?" He didn't know if she was actually around to hear him, since lately she seemed to split her time with other things. Getting a response seemed to be fifty-fifty the last few times he'd called her to check.

This time she was here though, and he only had a _minor_ heart attack when he turned to find she had materialized right behind him and was waiting behind him expectantly. Even if he'd half-expected it, it was still a shock how _suddenly_ she could appear.

Her head cocked to the side, those eerie, empty-looking eyes seeming to bore into his soul like always. "Yes?" she asked flatly, and he gulped, unable to help the shiver. How the hell did just her _voice_ leave him so uneasy? Izuku thought he'd be getting _used_ to her after so long, but instead it felt like the opposite was happening. The more he talked to her, the more _wrong_ Seiko felt.

"Um, I need to go visit Aiko's apartment," he said, shoving down his unease. "I left Kacchan with Hijack, so can you let them know I'll be back later than I planned?" She didn't respond, seeming to study him, and then—

She _smiled_.

It was a small, faint thing, just the barest upturn of her lips, but it was still enough to make Izuku suck in a sharp breath. Maybe it was just how _dead_ her eyes looked, empty and void of that spark of life and creating an odd dissonance with her smile. Or maybe it was how rare the expression was on her usually blank face. Whatever the cause, it was still enough to make him feel frozen and his spine shiver.

"Sure," she agreed, and then disappeared into the shadows without another word.

Well, he was going to have nightmares tonight. No idea _why_, but Izuku already knew he definitely would. Maybe sending _her_ to tell Kacchan and Shinsou was a bad idea. He tried not to dwell on it too much as he headed to the bar, where he found Kurogiri behind the counter as usual rearranging glasses. No one else was around, most of the villains out today doing... whatever.

"Hello, Izuku," the misty man greeted as Izuku entered. "Do you need something?"

"Can you send me to Aiko's apartment?" he asked. "I realized I forgot something there last time, and I thought I could hang out there for a while." He _would_ have said Aiko invited him to come over since that seemed like something she would do, but Uraraka had told him last night she'd left on some mysterious job. He didn't know if Kurogiri knew about this job, so he figured it'd be better to be vague.

"Very well," Kurogiri agreed easily without further prying, much to his relief. "Where are your friends?"

"They're playing games in Hijack's room. I'll probably be back before dinner unless Aiko has me stay over, so I'll let Kacchan out then. I'll call or text if she wants me to stay for dinner, but I'll _definitely_ be back later tonight to give Eraserhead his food." He added the last part with a pointed frown. Aizawa's trust in him was low enough, having another person suddenly deliver his meal would raise questions.

Kurogiri didn't seem bothered by the strict tone, simply nodding as he set down the glass he'd been holding. "That is fine. Feeding him is your responsibility after all. Do text by six at the latest, though." Even as he spoke some of the fog drifted from his body to form a portal large enough for Izuku to step through. Izuku thanked him a final time before entering, and soon found himself inside his bedroom at Aiko's apartment. Once again he found himself struck by all the hero merchandise, a strong wave of déjà vu washing over him as he looked around.

The laptop wasn't on the desk, so he realized Uraraka must have taken it to another room. "Uraraka?" he called as he headed to the door. He had barely reached for the handle when it flung open, revealing a bright-eyed and grinning Uraraka.

"_Deku!_" she exclaimed, relief and excitement evident in her voice. Before he could so much as say '_hi_' back she'd grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the main room of the apartment. He stumbled at first but quickly matched her pace as she led him towards the couch. "Come on, I don't know when Aiko will be back and we have _so much_ to talk about!"

"You got in touch with Ashido then, right?" he asked eagerly.

"Not exactly," she replied, and he blinked in confusion as she barreled on. "One of her friends messaged me instead. But Deku, _listen_!" She stopped and spun to face him, grabbing his shoulders and looking right in his eyes. The grin on her face wasn't cheerful or friendly, it was something more vicious and triumphant, closer to the smile she'd sported before the Sports Festival. "_We're not alone._"

His heart soared at her words, relief and anticipation cascading over him all at once. "S-so, she _is_ our Ashido?" Uraraka's hands tightened on his shoulders, her eyes sparking with excitement as her smile became even fiercer somehow.

"Not _just_ her," she said, and Izuku felt all the breath leave his body, mind momentarily going blank. She released her hold on his shoulders and spun around to grab his laptop from the coffee table, turning and opening it to face him. His eyes widened as he saw several photos of two people in hooded costumes—very familiar-looking costumes, with "1-A" clearly emblazoned on the backs.

"_Jirou?_" he breathed as he spied familiar, chunky-looking boots. Then upon seeing the other person with an index finger pointed, he whispered, "_Kaminari?_"

"Deku, we have so much to talk about," Uraraka said, and from there proceeded to blow his mind.

* * *

Ashido was pacing. Shouto had lost track of how many laps she'd done around the kitchen, clearly too agitated to sit still. He tried not to watch her as he finished off his lunch, a bowl of cold soba. He hadn't _asked_ for his favorite food, but he welcomed the surprise. "Man, that was good!" Kirishima said as he polished off his own bowl. "Remind me to thank your brother later, Anjou."

"Sure thing."

"Where _is_ Kuroe, anyway?" Shouto asked curiously. Kuroe had headed off shortly after breakfast, and it was already close to one.

"Work or something," Anjou said with a shrug, and Shouto frowned as he dredged through his memories.

"I thought he was a programmer?"

"Yeah, that's _one_ job." The cryptic remark had his frown growing, but before he could press Ashido abruptly stopped her pacing to slam her hands on the table.

"What's _taking_ her so long!?" she whined. "It's almost one! Ocha-chan should be done with whatever it was by now!" Shouto leaned away from her as she slumped forward; he'd already forgotten how dramatic and over-the-top she could be. It's not like they'd interacted directly that much back at home, he mostly just observed her outbursts from a safe distance. Anjou and Kirishima seemed to be used to her theatrics though, looking only mildly disturbed by it.

"Ashido, I get waiting is boring, but we don't really have a choice," Kirishima said. "She'll send Anjou her number when she's ready."

"But when will that be!?" Ashido cried.

At that moment, as if the heavens heard her plea, Anjou's phone gave that distinct chime from FacePage, and she quickly unlocked it. "Right now, I guess."

Ashido _squealed_ at the confirmation, and Anjou had to fight the pink-girl off when she tried to pounce and grab the phone. Shouto watched the exchange in silence for the most part, finding Ashido's excitement to be a little over the top and just _slightly_ intimidating if he were honest. At one point, he swore she _hissed_ at Anjou. Eventually he and Kirishima helped pull her off, and calmed her down.

"Remember, keep cool," Kirishima told her lowly, and she nodded seriously. Still, the air felt tense with anticipation as they all turned to watch Anjou make the call, putting the phone on speaker.

It rang only once before the other person picked up, and they heard a familiar voice say, "_Hello?_" Almost instantly Shouto felt some of his tension fade: _Uraraka_. She was a little wary and hesitant, but he recognized her voice almost right away. (Strange, the sound quality seemed clearer than when he called her in their own world.)

Unfortunately, Ashido also recognized her voice and that just kickstarted her excitement all over again. "OCHA-CHAN!" He winced at her shout right next to him and pulled away. He _really_ should have predicted that, grimacing as he watched her lean over the phone with a manic grin. "I KNEW IT! I _KNEW_ YOU WERE INFINITY GIRL!"

"Ashido, _volume_!" Kirishima hissed, making her flinch and mumble a quick "_sorry._"

"_Wait, who was that?_" Uraraka asked, and they heard a faint... _something_ from the background. "_Wait, _Kirishima_? _Was_ that Kirishima? He's here too?!_" Any doubts about this being their Uraraka faded instantly, though Shouto found himself wondering about the faint background noise. Was someone else with her?

"He's _a_ Kirishima, but probably not yours," Anjou replied for the redhead, who looked a bit flustered at the questions. "And I see we're skipping the checks. _Again._" She shot a pointed look at Ashido, who looked absolutely unrepentant as she shrugged.

"Sorry, I just got so excited!"

"_Uh, hold on, who was THAT?_" Uraraka questioned. "_Was that... Nettmegg?_"

"Yeah, it is," Anjou confirmed, turning back to the phone. "My name's Anjou Ran. I'm a friend of this world's Ashido and Kirishima, and apparently the one in charge of arranging this weird phone reunion. Also."

She glanced at Shouto pointedly, and he recognized the unspoken cue to introduce himself. "I'm here too," he announced, and he heard a loud gasp.

"_Todoroki!?_" Uraraka squeaked, and was it him, or did it sound like there were _two_ voices just then?

"Todo's from our world too!" Ashido exclaimed eagerly, leaning closer to the phone with a giant grin. "We only just met up last night though! He had no idea anyone else might be here, and was on his own this whole time!"

"That's why we had to delay the calls until today," Anjou added. "Last night involved some pretty big bombshells, and we needed some time to process everything." Shouto frowned but said nothing as he averted his gaze, feeling a brief moment of shame over his reaction last night. Shame, and confusion.

He still didn't know _why_ the news Endeavor had died in this world had shaken him up so much. It had been shocking, yes, but he felt like his reaction had been a bit extreme. Ultimately, this man _wasn't_ his father, so the loss shouldn't impact him. So then why did it upset him so much?

"_That's totally understandable!_" Uraraka replied, not missing a beat. "_I mean, this whole situation's kinda insane, ya know? I don't know about you guys, but we've been through a TON of stuff._"

"We?" Shouto latched onto the word, squinting at the phone as Ashido snapped to attention. "Uraraka, is someone else there?"

She didn't reply right away, and they heard faint mumbling before she finally spoke again. "_...Um, before I answer that. Did you guys get in touch with Jirou and Kaminari—I mean, the, uh, vigilantes?_"

"We did!" Ashido confirmed all too excitedly. "Uraraka, it's totally them! We talked to them earlier today and confirmed it all and everything!"

"We didn't talk much though," Shouto felt the need to add. "We wanted to wait to have you join the call, too."

"Actually, we're supposed to call and conference them in," Anjou commented, picking the phone off the table. "You cool with that?"

"_Yes please, thank you. It'll be so much better if we can do it all at once!_" Anjou hummed as she tapped away on the phone, and within a couple minutes Jirou and Kaminari's voices sounded over the speaker.

"_Uraraka, you're here too!?_" Kaminari exclaimed. "_SWEET!_"

"_Good to hear you, Infinity Girl,_" Jirou greeted wryly, in what Shouto thought might be a teasing tone. Uraraka groaned loud enough for her phone to pick up.

"_Come on, it worked, didn't it? Ashido recognized me right away!_"

"_Yeah, she did. Good job._" As they spoke Ashido seemed to be getting more and more excited, a feat he hadn't thought possible. She vibrated in place with increasing frequency until she finally seemed to reach her breaking point.

"This is AMAZING!" she exploded, throwing up her arms with obvious delight. "It's almost like we're all together, just over the phone!" She slammed her palms on the table and leaned closer to the phone. "Uraraka, you HAVE to tell us everything you've been up to! I want the details, stat! Why'd you run away? Did you know Midnight's looking for you!? Oh! Oh! And what's up with your family in this world? Like, why were you being home schooled!?"

"_Uh, it's kinda a long story,_" Uraraka muttered, and seemed to hesitate.

"_If it's a long story, how about we all explain our sides first?_" Jirou suggested when several seconds passed in silence. "_I mean, all of us have been pretty busy, so if you want to wait..._"

"_Yeah, I think it'd be best if I go last,_" Uraraka laughed weakly, clearly relieved. "_I don't think anyone would be able to focus on anything else when I'm done._" That was a surprising claim, and Shouto felt like he might be able to reasonably counter that. He _did_ wake up next to Dabi after all. He didn't argue it right away though.

"Alright, then who should go first?" he asked. There was a pause, and then he, Kirishima, and Anjou all turned to look at Ashido, her face split into a giant grin.

He shouldn't have even bothered to ask.

* * *

**So a notice to anime-only fans: yesterday something big happened in the manga. I won't say what, but I'm just warning you to be wary. There's going to be fan fics popping up as people vent their feelings (already seen at least one on AO3), and someone ALSO mentioned seeing it spoiled in a _thumbnail_ for a YouTube video. So yeah, be very careful for the next couple of weeks.**

**Question for next time: what would be the worst way to drop the "Izuku's here too and living with the LoV" bombshell?**


	53. Chapter 53: Story Time

Chapter 53

.::Story Time::.

Denki felt like he was dreaming. He had to keep pinching himself to confirm this was real, that he was actually talking to his classmates. That Ashido, Todoroki, and Uraraka were all _here_, had experienced just as much chaos and confusion as they had.

They started with Ashido's story. How she woke up in Kamino of all places (and _damn_, if he didn't get chills thinking of how weird it would be to wake up there after All Might's epic final battle) and lived in the same apartment building as Kirishima. He wasn't one of them and had no memories of their world, which was still massively disappointing, but she had decided to help him "man up" and clung to him.

It was kinda funny hearing how Ashido just claimed she had "_sudden partial amnesia_" and went about her school life with the help of Kirishima and her friends Kumiko and Anjou. Her life was pretty unremarkable up until she made a FacePage profile and got a message from someone she suspected to be Uraraka. Which Uraraka had obviously confirmed.

Not long after that Uraraka had run away though, and then Ashido and Kirishima got caught up in a villain attack. _That_ led to them getting put under the protective watch of some hero named Oracle, and then on Sunday he and Midnight had come to visit her with a detective to talk about Uraraka running away. Apparently they'd somehow tracked Ashido through her messages with Uraraka on FacePage, which had been why Anjou had been so paranoid about saying too much over FacePage.

"_Dang it Infinity Girl, why didn't you tell me you knew Midnight-sensei!_" Ashido whined at that part.

"_Wait, what?_" Uraraka sounded genuinely confused. "_Hold on, I don't remember meeting Midnight-sensei! The only people I've met since coming here besides my parents are—_" She stopped short there, and then very faintly, "_...Oh my gosh. Suimin-sensei was Midnight. How did I _miss_ that!?_"

"Suimin-sensei?" Jirou repeated.

"_...My homeschool tutor. I'll explain later. Uh, please keep going on, Ashido._"

Ashido complied, summarizing the rest of her house arrest with a single word: "_boring._" Then she found a news story on _them_, Denki and Jirou, as the 1-A Vigilantes, and had proceeded to call her friends to freak out. And _that_ somehow ended with them making a grand escape with Anjou's aid—and for some reason, Kirishima tagged along for the ride.

"_For the record, I'm still having trouble believing all this,_" he commented sheepishly, speaking for the first time since Ashido started talking. "_But there's a ton of stuff that's kinda hard to ignore, so... yeah._" After that, nothing really happened until last night when Anjou helped them find Todoroki, at which point they decided to pause her story until after Todoroki's turn.

However, Todoroki had other plans. "_Can I wait until later too?_" he asked.

"..._Wait, what?_" Uraraka asked faintly, sounding confused.

"But—but they just set it up _perfectly_ for you, dude!" Denki said.

"_I guess, but I think my first day might make it harder to focus on whoever goes after me._" That was a surprising and kinda weird claim, but after a few seconds Jirou snorted.

"Right, you disappeared after Endeavor died, didn't you," she muttered wryly, and Denki belatedly remembered the news articles they'd found on the first day while searching for their classmates. "Guess whatever you were up to after that must've been pretty crazy, huh?" Todoroki didn't respond right away, and then they heard some sort of... shuffling? Nearly thirty seconds passed before Anjou eventually spoke up.

"_...Yeah, so remember how I said something came up last night when asking to delay the calls?_" she asked lowly. Her voice sounded a bit clearer now even though she'd dropped to a whisper, and Denki realized she'd taken it off speaker. "_That 'something' was specifically Todoroki finding out Endeavor was dead, because he didn't know that until we told him._"

Denki and Jirou both startled at the revelation, Denki nearly falling out of his chair. "_He what!?_" Uraraka squeaked, voice actually breaking.

"Holy shit!" Denki hissed, eyes wide with horror. "How did he not know that?!"

"_Because he didn't really have regular internet access, and he specifically avoided looking up his dad for some reason. So, yeah. You kinda hit a sore spot. Ashido and Kirishima are kinda trying to comfort him now, but any objections to pushing off his turn for a bit longer?_"

"_That's... fine by me,_" Uraraka said. "_As long as I don't go next._"

"Mind telling us more about how you're connected to this while we wait?" Jirou asked. "You and Ashido kinda skipped over where you came into play with the whole running away thing, and I kinda doubt it's just because you're friends." Anjou didn't respond right away.

"_...Actually, I do mind,_" she declared firmly. "_This isn't something we can talk about over the phone. We can't risk anyone overhearing by tapping into the line or something. There are _lives_ at stake here._"

"And _our_ situation isn't that dangerous?" Jirou asked dryly.

"_To be fair, most people will assume you guys are all insane,_" Anjou retorted, and her voice became a bit more distant as she added, "_No offense._"

Apparently the others had finished comforting Todoroki and she'd taken it off speaker. "_Some taken,_" Ashido huffed.

"_They apparently thought I was under a villain's control, and just played along to keep an eye on me,_" Todoroki added. Was it Denki's imagination, or did he sound a bit hurt about whoever "they" were?

"_I think I believe you now,_" Kirishima said weakly. "_Mostly. I mean, it's still kinda a lot to wrap my head around, you know?_"

"Yeah, no, it definitely sounds insane," Jirou conceded with a sigh. "I probably wouldn't believe it if I wasn't living it myself."

"_...Hey, do you really think someone might be listening in?_" Uraraka asked, sounding vaguely worried.

"_Chances are low, but paranoia saves lives in this world,_" Anjou replied, and Denki could almost hear her shrugging. "_I'm admittedly more paranoid than most. In the end, it's your call though._" Uraraka was silent for nearly a full minute, which only made the tension in the air seem to grow.

"_Can we continue for now?_" she finally asked.

"That's cool with me," Jirou agreed.

"_Yeah, what about you guys?_" Ashido piped up. "_You're obviously vigilantes, which is AWESOME, but how did you decide to do that? Were your other selves already vigilantes and they just had the gear!? How'd you find each other so fast!?_" Denki perked up at the last question, grinning at the memory.

"Actually, I just looked in my phone contacts and found Jirou. She was the first name I recognized so I called her up, I guess we got lucky."

"That's the only luck we've had though," Jirou sighed. "I got a text from Yaomomo after we met up asking if I was okay. We're apparently best friends in this world, but she's not from ours."

"_Ooh, that's rough,_" Uraraka hissed sympathetically. "_Yaomomo's really smart. She must've figured you out, like, instantly, right?_"

"_Is she the one making your vigilante gear?_" Todoroki asked curiously. "_Did you convince her to help?_" Denki winced at the question, shuddering as he got flashbacks to Hatsume barging into his apartment that first time. And then more flashbacks to every other meeting with her. Some people were just naturally terrifying.

"Actually, you know that girl with the pink hair from the support course?" Jirou asked. "She goes to our school here, and Kaminari's apparently got a ton of debt to her. Our first week here she barged in to have him charge up some invention she made, and that's when we asked her to help make us gear. We figured being vigilantes would be a good way to get attention if anyone else _was_ here."

"_Well, it worked!_" Ashido cheered. "_I found you guys, and now we're all in touch!_" That had Denki smiling, relief and pride cascading over him in equal measures. Their plan _had_ worked, they'd managed to get the attention of some of their classmates from THEIR world. He felt so relieved knowing their work had actually paid off in the end.

"_So you didn't tell Yaoyorozu?_" Uraraka asked, and just like that Denki's good mood plummeted. "_How have you been hiding it from her, then?_" She sounded more curious than anything, and across from him Jirou grimaced.

"Uh, actually, I kinda... haven't met her," she admitted slowly, scratching her cheek and looking away from the phone. "I've been skipping school, and just not really responding to her messages...?"

She trailed off, and there was a brief silence as everyone absorbed that. Then Ashido asked, "_Didn't you say you're _best_ friends in this world?_"

"Based on the texts, yeah," Jirou muttered, and sighed. "Look, Yaomomo's smart. I figured if anyone would see through me acting weird, it'd be her. And we all just established how freaking _insane_ this all sounds. In our world, she'd tell Aizawa-sensei in a heartbeat if someone suddenly claimed they were from another dimension. That's obviously not an option here, but I don't know _what_ this world's Yaomomo would do."

"_That's not..._" Ashido trailed off, seeming at a loss for words, and Denki bit his lip.

"_Didn't people notice you missing school though?_" Todoroki asked, sounding confused, and before they could answer Anjou spoke up.

"_You switched to the online modules, right?_" she asked. "_I checked out Munakata High School a bit, and it seems like it has a pretty similar setup to what we've got at Sakakura. It was listed as one of the key selling points._"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I did," Jirou confirmed, seeming relieved at the topic change, and Denki perked up as another thought occurred to him.

"Oh yeah, Iida's doing online classes too," he said eagerly. "He doesn't remember us, either, but—_oh yeah_! We actually saw him on Wednesday while fighting this really freaky villain!"

"_Wait, you fought a VILLAIN?_" Ashido gasped, and Denki wasted no time launching into recounting the battle, Jirou piping in with details and her perspective as she saw fit. The others seemed to suck it up, gasping at all the right moments, and Ashido even cried out a horrified "_No!_" when Jirou described seeing the toddler.

"Honestly, our patrols aren't usually that big," Denki said after they finished the story. "We've stopped a couple attacks and robberies, but that was the first _really_ big fight we've had. We barely got away." Ashido and Uraraka began gushing appropriately for such an epic tale, with even Kirishima chiming in about how cool it was, but Denki found his attention drawn more to Jirou whose eyes had narrowed in thought.

Something about her expression worried him, she looked bothered by something. She noticed his worried stare and shook her head silently though and mouthed '_not important right now,_' so he didn't press it. "Anyways, that's our side," he said. "I guess it's your turn now, right Uraraka?"

Uraraka was silent though, making his frown grow. "_...Can Todoroki tell his story first?_" she finally asked.

"_Really?_" Ashido asked, sounding faintly exasperated. "_Come on, I've been waiting for so _long_! You owe me answers, Infinity Girl!_"

"_I know, but... The stuff on my end is really, _really_ complicated, and I still need some time to kinda... think it over. And once I tell you, it's going to derail everything else. Just—please trust me._" Her voice had a note of pleading, and Denki and Jirou exchanged frowns once more. What the hell happened to Uraraka after she ran away?

They heard some muffled chatter from the other end, but then Todoroki spoke up. "_Alright, I guess..._"

* * *

Shouto didn't really want to start sharing his story just yet. He wanted to get everyone's opinions on the Dabi situation, because it had been bothering him a lot this whole time, and having another person speak after him would cut into that. Uraraka's pleading tone made him give in though, and he offered a silent apology to her.

"I woke up next to Dabi," he started bluntly, and heard a _definite_ choking sound from Uraraka's end and some sort of muffled exclamation. He'd tried to warn her.

"_Dabi!? How—what did you do then?_"

"I froze him in a glacier and ran away. At first I thought I was kidnapped by the League of Villains, but after getting away I realized my hair was dyed and I had all the components for a disguise on me. And I also had a phone, so..." As he spoke he pulled out the phone in question, currently powered off, and frowned at it. "I still don't know _why_ I was with him, but I think he's been calling it a lot."

"_Holy shit,_" Kaminari breathed, which matched Shouto's sentiments well.

"_I can see why you wanted to go last,_" Jirou muttered faintly. Shouto didn't respond, waiting for Uraraka's response, but he didn't get one. Instead, they only got a lot of muffled noises, along with some sort of rustling sound.

"_Uh, Uraraka?_" Kaminari piped up. "_You still there?_"

It took a few seconds before she responded. "_Uh, y-yeah. Sorry, just—talking to, uh, someone._" That got their attentions, reminding Shouto and the others that Uraraka had indeed implied someone else was there before they conferenced in Kaminari and Jirou.

"_Hold on, someone's with you?_" Jirou demanded sharply. "_Is it someone from our class? Can we trust them?_"

Once more there was a lot of strange, muffled noises before she spoke up again. "_...Um, before I answer, can Todoroki finish his story? Because... I _really_ don't think we'll be able to focus on it after this._"

That was quite possibly the most ominous answer Uraraka could have been given. "There's not much else left," Anjou said briskly before Shouto could respond. "He saw Gentle Criminal's latest heist on the news, figured out Phantom Shadow is Tokoyami and decided to come to Odawara to look for him. And then I got him in touch with Ashido through sources I can't disclose. That's it."

"..._Wait, who's Phantom Shadow?_" Uraraka asked, and everyone went silent. Even Anjou looked shocked at her confusion.

"He's... Gentle Criminal's sidekick," Kirishima said after a second. "You know, the most famous phantom thief duo in Japan? Just got on the news for escaping _Ingenium_ on Wednesday?"

There were some more muffled noises. "_Gentle Criminal's that guy who dresses in a fancy suit and makes videos about robbing stores and drinking tea, right?_"

More stunned silence. "_...Uh, maybe in _our_ world,_" Jirou said. "_But in this world, he's pretty much a super-popular phantom thief. There's been like, two or three heists since we all ended up here._"

"_The guy's plastered all over the news in Hosu right now!_" Kaminari added. "_They ran away from Ingenium! It's a bigger story than our fight with that villain lady!_"

"Haven't you heard ANYTHING about him?!" Ashido exclaimed. "There's _tons_ of fan art of what Phantom Shadow looks like—and he's _totally_ Tokoyami, by the way. He uses Dark Shadow and everything! No idea why he's that Gentle Criminal guy's sidekick in this world, but it's totally him."

_ "__Isn't his sidekick—_" A pause, more muffled noises. "_La Brava...?_"

"...Who the heck is La Brava?" Anjou whispered, her face contorted in absolute confusion. The name only vaguely tickled at Shouto's own memory. He felt like Midoriya mentioned the name at some point, maybe...?

Kaminari spoke up next, drawing out his words slowly. "_...How the heck did Todoroki—the only one without ANY regular access to the internet or news—know this, and not _you_? What have you been _doing_ this whole time!?_"

"_...I've been kinda busy?_" Uraraka sounded sheepish and embarrassed.

"With _what_!" Ashido slammed her hands on the table, almost glaring at the phone. "I've been waiting forever to hear why you ran away, Infinity Girl! I had to sit through questioning from Midnight and Oracle and that detective guy! And then you didn't even message me for, like, a _week_!"

"_I didn't really have a phone though!_" Uraraka protested. "_And then when I finally DID get one, YOU ran away... instead..._" She lost some of the heat to her words as she spoke, growing more contemplative. "_...Huh. That's kinda ironic, now that I think about it._"

"Yeah, it is," Anjou snorted to herself, before continuing more loudly, "How about you just tell us _your_ side of the story? I feel like that'll do a better job at answering our questions."

There was a long silence after that, Uraraka seeming to think. "_I know you said you're mostly just paranoid, but... How secure is this line?_"

"Should be mostly secure," Anjou replied. "Can't say the same for everyone else, but our phone can't be traced, and I'm assuming you're using a burner, right?"

"_Yeah. I am—oh!_" She paused. "_I have the box for it right here. It's a..._" She rattled off a name and several numbers that meant absolutely nothing to Shouto, but Anjou had an intense gleam in her eyes as she leaned forward.

"That's... a really good model. One of the most secure ones on the market."

"_And expensive, too,_" Jirou added casually. "_That's the same model I bought today._"

"_It—it is?_" Uraraka squeaked. "_Oh my gosh, how much did she pay for this!?_"

"Who're you talking about?" Ashido pressed, jumping on the opening. "WAIT! Did you find Hagakure!? She's, like, the only girl we don't know anything about!"

"_Uh, no, not her. But wait! Then—does that mean you got in contact with Asui, too!?_" Anjou openly winced at the name while Shouto frowned. He knew Anjou wanted to avoid any direct references to the runaway network, and after spending so much time with them this week he felt just as protective of their privacy. He'd heard just enough details to understand why they were all so wary of talking to _anyone_.

"We can't say all the names," he said bluntly. "Some of them are in dangerous positions and don't want to risk being found. _At all._" He emphasized the last part.

"We have been able to cross out everyone but five people," Anjou piped up with a sigh. "Based on everyone's stories so far, there's about five people we can't confirm _for sure_. We have no clue about Hagakure, but we already mentioned Tokoyami. We don't know if he's not from your world, but he's keeping up the heists so he should be trackable."

"But wait, if he's from that world, then why's he still doing heists?" Kirishima piped up in confusion. "Aren't you guys hero students?"

"Yeah, but that's not a guarantee he doesn't remember. _Especially_ since they've moved to Hosu."

"_What's Hosu got to do with anything?_" Uraraka asked, echoing Shouto's confusion, but Jirou quickly spoke up.

"_Wait, you think he might be looking for _us_?_" she blurted, and Shouto and the others startled as Anjou nodded.

"It's not impossible," Anjou replied. "If he did get caught up in this, he might have gone along with Gentle Criminal's crimes because he didn't have a choice. Or he might have just been biding his time figuring out a plan. He can't exactly go to the police or Pros for help since he's technically a criminal, after all." Shouto, Ashido and Kirishima all turned to stare at each other, eyes wide at the revelation.

It had never occurred to Shouto while searching for them that Tokoyami might be from their world, but it made sense. Especially given he and Gentle Criminal had moved to Hosu after the 1-A Vigilantes began to rise in popularity. Jirou and Kaminari stated that the whole reason they became vigilantes was to get attention from other displaced members of Class 1-A, so he'd go for the first person he knew.

"Woah, if that's true then that's crazy," Kirishima breathed.

"That's all just speculation, so we can't be sure until we talk to him," Anjou said, getting a few nods. "Anyways, as for Aoyama Yuga, we won't be able to get any solid confirmation, but from what the tabloids say he seems the same as ever."

"_Wait, tabloids?_" Kaminari repeated, and Ashido perked up.

"He's a movie star here!" she exclaimed. "Crazy, right? I looked him up, and apparently he's gonna star in some movie coming out soon as a villain!"

That was news to Shouto. "Aoyama? A villain?" He thought of his classmate—blond hair always neatly brushed out, sparkly eyes and that constant odd smile, the random bits of French and that long hero name. He couldn't picture it.

...Kaminari was cackling. "_That—that sounds crazy! If we're still here when it comes out, we've totally gotta see it!_"

"...Okay." Shouto didn't really care for movies too much, but this time he felt strongly compelled to see it. Seriously, Aoyama? As a _villain_?

He frowned then as his mind moved back to the topic at hand. They'd derailed the topic a bit from Uraraka's story, but now they'd moved onto something he couldn't keep to himself anymore. "...The other two will be harder to confirm though," he said slowly. "It's... Midoriya and Bakugou."

Just saying it out loud made his hands clench at his sides, and from the corner of his eye he saw Ashido wince. The atmosphere seemed to fall all at once, and he swore he heard an intake of breath from the phone.

"_...Deku?_" Uraraka whispered, and Shouto opened his mouth to respond but found he couldn't speak. Uraraka and Midoriya had been close from the first day of school. How did you tell someone her best friend was _missing_?

Apparently by being very blunt. "Midoriya Izuku's been missing since he was eight," Anjou declared briskly, tone clipped and to the point. "More recently, Bakugou Katsuki disappeared last month, a little before you guys all got... whatever. He probably got kidnapped to be recruited for his Quirk. So if either of them are caught up in this, we have no way of knowing."

Ashido winced at the reminder and Kirishima sucked in a sharp breath, clearly looking awkward and out of place as he glanced between her and Shouto. For his part Shouto sat in silence, just staring forward with his hands clenched into tight fists. The reminder that two of their classmates—two of his _friends_—were missing in this world left him feeling cold and almost numb.

Honestly, that uncertainty felt just as bad as finding out Endeavor had died in this world, if not worse. At least they knew for a fact that Endeavor was dead, but with those two, they had no idea.

Uraraka, Kaminari and Jirou were just as quiet as he was, and nearly a full minute passed in dead silence. "_Shit,_" Jirou finally muttered, breaking the silence. "_Shit, this is... not good. Not good at all._"

"_Bakubro's been kidnapped?_" Kaminari said, voice sounding faint and distant. "_I... w-wha...?_"

"It's... a lot to take in," Anjou commented, and this was the gentlest he'd heard her speak since meeting her. "You guys can take some time to process it."

Before he knew it Shouto found his mouth opening, words flying out almost automatically. "If you don't want to talk about it right now, we can call back later. You're all... close to Midoriya and Bakugou, right?" The words felt stilted and awkward to his own ears, but... After learning about Endeavor, he felt he could understand how they might feel. Just a little. "It's... not good, so it might take a while for it to really settle in. We'll be here if you want us to though."

"Yeah," Ashido agreed softly, offering the phone a sad smile. "We're all friends. If you guys all want alone time, we'll give it to you."

"And if you want to talk about it, we can do that too," Kirishima added. "I mean, I'm a stranger so I don't really feel this as strongly as you guys, but I can at least listen. Just, whatever helps you feel better, right?"

"_...Yeah, maybe,_" Kaminari muttered, barely audible. Shouto however found himself focused on the one person _who_ hadn't spoken.

"...Uraraka, how are you feeling?" he asked. "Are you... Do you need some time?"

"_...No, that's not it,_" Uraraka said after several seconds. "_It's just..._" She trailed off, clearly hesitating.

"Uraraka?" Ashido said with a frown after nearly a full minute of silence.

"_...So, you wanted to know why I ran away, right?_" Uraraka asked slowly, and if _that_ wasn't ominous then Shouto didn't know what was. "_Well, see, you know how my parents own a construction company? Well, in this world, it's actually REALLY big now because we specialize in fixing damage from villain fights, so we're actually... kinda rich in this world?_"

_"__I know _that_ feeling,_" Jirou snorted. "_I still can't believe how much is in my bank account. On that note, if we need to buy anything, I'll cover it. Pretty sure I could buy us ALL round-trip flights and all-access passes to Disneyworld. As in, the one in Florida. In America._" Shouto had never been to Disneyworld or flown overseas, so he didn't know how significant that would be. Judging by the startled looks from the others though, that must be expensive.

"Holy shit," Kirishima wheezed. "_How—?_" He stopped himself. "...R-right, your dad's a famous rock star, huh?"

"Why didn't that happen in _our_ world?" Ashido wondered.

"_So far, only big difference I can find besides everything else? My mom's dead in this one._" An awkward silence followed that bitter declaration, everyone momentarily stunned. "_...Yeah, just ignore that part. I don't remember what happened in this world, so it's not as big a deal._" Shouto would like to _vehemently_ disagree based on his own personal experience, but now was not the time or place. "_Go on, Uraraka._"

"_R-right,_" she said after a moment. "_So anyways. I help out with my Quirk to move rubble and stuff, so between that and us being rich, I guess I'm kinda a target for villains? So my parents kinda kept me hidden away at home whenever I'm not down at the construction sites. But one day I went shopping with Suimin—or, Midnight-sensei, I guess—oh, I guess _that's_ why she was allowed to take me out alone—_anyways_! So we went shopping, and then..._"

She trailed off, hesitating again. "And then?" Ashido pressed.

"_...Um, the thing is, you guys were actually right about Bakugou getting captured by villains. And in this world, the League of Villains is called the Villain Alliance._" Shouto jolted at the response from the phone, because that wasn't Uraraka. No, this was someone else entirely, someone even _more_ familiar and whose voice sent his heart straight into his throat.

"Midoriya?" he choked out, and there was a long pause.

"_...Hey, everyone,_" Midoriya greeted lamely. "_So... We've, uh, got a _lot_ to talk about._"

* * *

**Izuku finally joins the conversation. ****Next time: everyone freaks out.**

**No question for next time. Your reactions are enough. :D**


	54. Chapter 54: Phones are Exploding

Chapter 54

.::Phones are Exploding::.

The response to Izuku's introduction was instant.

The phone's speakers had nearly exploded with all the shouting after he spoke up, the noise enough to make him wince. Uraraka meanwhile had abandoned him to his fate, curling up on his bed to quietly groan to herself and scream into his pillow.

He kinda wished he could do the same right now. He'd actually already done that the second Todoroki mentioned waking up next to Dabi, because _oh sweet All Might, Todoroki was the "Yuki" Dabi mentioned to Uraraka_. Everything added up perfectly, from the fact that Todoroki had trapped him in a glacier to the fact he had a phone Dabi kept calling.

Which meant Dabi was Todoroki's brother.

Izuku seriously, _seriously_ wanted to mute the phone again and just _scream_ for a while. He had no idea if it was unique to this world, but he couldn't see any reason it would be! He and Uraraka had basically had the most panicked game of charades in the history of charades when they realized that, and then they had to mute the phone while Todoroki finished the rest of his story so they could _actually_ talk.

Their conclusion: they were NOT dropping that on Todoroki and everyone else right now. Under literally ANY other circumstance, Izuku would have been all for telling him everything right away because _mother of All Might, Dabi was Todoroki's brother!_ This explained _so much_, except it didn't really, it just raised all sorts of questions. Why was Dabi a villain? Did he just hate Endeavor _that much_? Did he want to kill Todoroki, too?

They seriously needed to tell Todoroki all this, and they _would_. Just, not now. Now was _not_ the time to tell him that bombshell, because Izuku's story was the most insane of all, and everyone would have enough to process from just that.

The giant cacophony of voices finally started to die down as everyone realized he wasn't saying anything, meaning Izuku had no more time to think. "_Midoriya?_" Jirou pressed sharply. "_You're actually Midoriya? _Our_ Midoriya?_"

"Yeah, I am," he confirmed with a small cringe. "I guess that makes six..."

"_Dude, this is AWESOME!_" Kaminari exclaimed. "_You're, like, one of the smartest guys in our whole class! And you're like a Quirk expert or something, right? I mean, you keep all those notebooks! You've gotta know how we got here, right?_"

"Not... really," Izuku muttered lamely, and he could almost _feel_ the dejection at his response. "I don't really know what could have triggered it. I keep thinking over the last day in our world—by the way, you guys all woke up on Monday, November 14th, right?" he asked just to be sure, and when he got affirmatives he continued, "So yeah, I've thought about the day before, but I can't figure out anything that would tie all of _us_, specifically, together. And... I don't think any of us would have met in _this_ world, either."

"_...Midoriya,_" Todoroki said, and Izuku flinched because that just reminded him _Dabi was Todoroki's brother_. "_You said Bakugou was captured, right? And that the League of Villains is called the Villain Alliance?_" Izuku winced for a different reason now and shrunk in on himself further, Uraraka shooting him a sympathetic glance.

"_...Midoriya, you've been missing in this world for over eight years,_" Anjou said slowly, and he could almost _hear_ the gears turning in her brain. He didn't know her, but Izuku could already tell she was incredibly sharp and observant, almost reminding him of Aizawa or Sir Nighteye. "_Where have you been this whole time?_"

Izuku sucked in a sharp breath, squeezing the fabric of his pants as he grimaced. Even though she asked, he had a feeling she and everyone else knew the answer. "...You said talking on the phone isn't the most secure, so I can't tell you guys everything," he said after several seconds. "And even then, I don't _know_ everything, either. I just know what I read in a letter to myself."

"_A letter?_" Jirou repeated, and he nodded.

"Y-yeah. Apparently, I got hit by some Quirk a few years ago that sometimes kinda scrambles my memories, so I wrote a letter to myself to help explain, uh, everything. Like... my parents dying." He hung his head at that, the words almost painful to say even now. He shook his head, frowning as he continued. "And, to answer your question, Anjou-san... I, kinda ran away from home, or the Bakugou house, I guess, and then somehow got adopted by Shigaraki and the Alliance...?"

There was a tense silence after that as everyone processed his statement. "_What,_" Kaminari finally whispered, and that seemed to be all Izuku's nerves needed to fully unravel and have him explode.

"It's true! I don't know _how_, but when I woke up I was in this room full of hero merchandise except there was none for All Might, and then Shigaraki showed up asking if I still 'felt bad' and—he was _actually concerned_, guys! He actually sounded really worried and not like he was mocking me or anything! He talked about watching movies and left, and then I found that letter I mentioned that explained everything, and it said to check this list at the end so I did and it mentioned _Kacchan_—"

He was cut off by a soft whack to his side, gasping in surprise. "Deku, _breathe_!" Uraraka told him with a worried frown. "You're working yourself up too much!" Staring at her dumbly, after several seconds Izuku slowly nodded and greedily gulped in air while she took over. "What he's _trying_ to say is that after he ran away in this world, he got adopted by Shigaraki and the Villain Alliance at some point. And then something weird happened with a villain, so this world's Deku sometimes just... forgets stuff, I guess?"

She shrugged and shot him a helpless look, and he nodded miserably in confirmation. "_Hold on, Midoriya _totally_ said Kacchan at the end of that,_" Kaminari pointed out, making Izuku wince. "_That's what you call Bakugou, isn't it?_"

Izuku and Uraraka exchanged grimaces. By this point he'd calmed down a bit thanks to the breathing, so he nodded as he responded. "Yeah, it is. The letter had a list of recent events, so I could keep track of what's going on if I have 'episodes'—that's what the letter calls it when the other me forgets, uh, everything, I guess—and the most recent one was that... Kacchan got captured to be recruited."

"_What?_" Izuku couldn't tell who said it, the voice barely above a whisper, but their horror was audible in it.

"Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt," he muttered. "I... kinda freaked out really bad. When I visited him, he didn't recognize me though—I mean obviously he _did_, but not from UA. So he's not our Bakugou. And... it's not just him, either," he added with a frown. "Shinsou's here too. This world's Shinsou, not ours."

"_Shinsou?_" Ashido repeated, sounding confused.

"_He's that gen ed kid you went up against in the first round, right?_" Jirou asked. "_The one with the... brainwashing Quirk, I think?_"

"Yeah, him," Izuku confirmed, grimacing. "I... I didn't even see him for a couple days though. I'd made a note about it on that list, he actually got captured before Kacchan, but... I didn't realize it was _him_. It didn't use his actual name, it called him Hijack. I guess he's a vigilante in this world? Except... He got captured, and he's..." He trailed off, swallowing harshly before he forced himself to speak. "He's trapped in a muzzle."

Dead silence followed, the horror palpable in the air. "_...Fuck,_" someone whispered, which summed up his feelings pretty well.

"_Anjou?_" Kirishima spoke up now. "_Hey, are you okay? You look really pale._"

"_No, I'm... not fine,_" she muttered, voice sounding strained, and Izuku realized she'd been the one to curse just then. "_Look, just... Ignore me for a second. You said there's two people there? Bakugou and Shinsou? Are either of them hurt?_"

"No, they're not," Izuku said, feeling relieved he could at least say that much. "We started working together to try to work towards escaping. I didn't tell them everything obviously, because it sounds insane, but I showed them the letter. I think my other self might've wanted to help them get out too, so thankfully it didn't take long to convince them. And Shigaraki wants them to join my party, anyway...?"

"_Wait, you mean like a party in RPG games?_" Kaminari asked.

"Yeah... He likes video games a lot. We were actually out buying games when I ran into Uraraka."

"Oh, so _that's_ why you were out there?" Uraraka piped up in surprise.

"Yeah. And it was _so weird_," Izuku added with a shiver. "He was talking to the clerk normally and everything! He must be a regular because he called Shigaraki 'Shiro' and they were talking about games. He even had money to buy it!"

"_...We _are_ talking about Shigaraki, right?_" Jirou asked. "_You know, the guy that almost killed Aizawa at the USJ, had Bakugou kidnapped, threatened to disintegrate your neck at the mall or something like that...?_"

"I know, I'm just as surprised," Izuku muttered. "But yeah, that's when I ran into Uraraka. I was still really freaked out by everything with Bakugou and Shinsou, so I didn't give her my phone number." He paused then, turning to shoot her a deadpan look that made her flinch as he added more dryly, "And _that's_ when she decided to run away and try to join the Villain Alliance." Uraraka cringed at being called out so openly.

"_...You did what._" Jirou was perfectly deadpan, making her cringe some more.

"I didn't have any other ideas!" she whined. "I was kinda stuck on constant guard at my house and when I looked up Deku, all I found were articles about his parents dying and that he'd been missing for _years_! My parents had to both leave me home alone the next day, and I didn't know when I'd get another chance so I just—I just _ran_, and hoped for the best." She shrank in on herself, looking thoroughly chastised.

"_I feel like Aizawa-sensei would expel you over this,_" Todoroki commented blandly. Maybe it was meant to be a joke, or maybe it was just a casual observation, but either way it had them _both_ wincing and looking at each other with matching grimaces.

_Aizawa-sensei._

_That_ was what made this call so tricky and why they were so paranoid about anyone overhearing it. Beyond all the normal concerns about someone finding out Izuku lived with villains—beyond the fact they were holding two teenagers captive against their wills—the Alliance was holding a _Pro Hero_ prisoner. They hadn't been the first ones to capture him, but they were now the ones locking away Eraserhead.

And that—that was a MAJOR red flag, the kind of thing that would spur any eavesdroppers into immediate action.

Izuku gnawed on his lip anxiously as he thought it over. They didn't actually have any _real_ reason to suspect someone might be spying on them, let alone someone who might be able to report it. Sometimes, you had to take a risk to make progress. And if any situation needed progress, it was this one.

"...There's something else," he finally said, and he could see the moment Uraraka recognized his intent. Her expression hardened, nodding at him in silent encouragement and support, and he took a deep breath. "This week, Shigaraki... captured sensei, and kinda gave him to me as a... _pet_." The word felt like tar on his tongue, ducking his head shamefully.

"_...He did _what_?_" Todoroki sounded genuinely horrified, speaking with some of the most emotion he'd ever heard from the other boy. It kind of hammered in how utterly screwed up this whole thing was, making Izuku hang his head further. From the corner of his eye he saw Uraraka shoot him a worried look before taking over.

"It happened right after we met up again—or, kinda, _when_ we met, I guess? Like, uh... So the day we met again, I was found by..." She paused and settled for a vague, "Someone."

"_Someone?_" Jirou repeated, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.

"We can't really say _too_ much for safety reasons, same as you guys," she mumbled, and Izuku nodded in agreement. "Anyways. I can't say _who_ it is, but I was spying on this place I _thought_ might be the Alliance's base, and a bunch of them showed up following Shigaraki. That's when I was found by this person who's connected to the Alliance somehow—and I'm not just being vague, we _really_ don't get what the connection is. We don't remember them in our world, so no idea from there either. I mentioned Deku, and they took me to their place and made me hot chocolate. And around the same time, I guess that's when the Alliance captured sensei...?"

She shot Izuku a helpless shrug, and he frowned as her words jogged a part of his memory. "There was a raid that day," he muttered. "Magne told me a bit about it later. They wanted to wipe out some rival group, and when they did..."

He trailed off again, unable to finish the thought. "_...They found him there, didn't he,_" Todoroki finished grimly, and Izuku hung his head.

"...He was already in bad shape. I don't know how long he'd been held prisoner, but it's obviously been a while. At least a few months." If Present Mic's signoff was for Aizawa like he thought, it was likely closer to six. "But, I guess the other me is a big fan of him, because instead of just... f-finishing him off," and those words felt like _ash_, awful and repulsive and _horrible_ on his tongue, "they brought him back. For—for _me_. They... they broke his leg," he added, and he heard multiple horrified gasps from the phone. "He can't really walk or do... anything, really."

"_He's not being, like, t-tortured, right?_" Kaminari asked shakily, and Izuku felt so much relief he could honestly shake his head.

"No. Like I said, he's basically supposed to be my... _pet,_" and that still felt _so wrong_ to say, "so, everyone else mostly leaves him alone. It's basically my job to feed him and all that stuff. I've been trying to make him as comfortable as possible and build up his trust so we can get him in on the escape plan, but... It's been pretty slow going. And today he met Bakugou and Shinsou, and I think that _probably_ made it worse."

"_Why don't you tell him you WANT to help him?_" Kirishima asked.

"_Yeah!_" Ashido piped up. "_I mean, it's sensei! Can't you just tell him everything? Maybe he can help us out too!_"

"_Okay, before Midoriya says anything, think for a second,_" Jirou cut in. "_How would you feel if _you_ were captured by villains, kidnapped by a different group of villains, given to the leader's kid brother as a pet, and then this kid says he wants you to escape. And also, he says he's from another world._" Despite his low mood the deadpan remark had Izuku smiling slightly, amused at how ridiculous it sounded.

"_...Okay, never mind, I totally get it,_" Ashido relented sheepishly. "_Sorry, Mido._"

"It's... kinda okay, I guess," he sighed. "It's just a really bad situation all around. I'm kinda surprised I haven't had a panic attack yet. Well, except for when I first saw sensei," he added with his shoulders drooping. "That's when Shigaraki had Kurogiri send me here to... that person's apartment." He had to stop himself from referencing Aiko's name. Mentioning it on a potentially unsecure line felt more dangerous than everything else so far for some reason, even revealing Aizawa's captivity.

"_Damn,_" Jirou breathed. "_You know, of all the things to happen in this world, I never would have predicted something like... _this_._"

"_And here I thought Todoroki had the craziest story,_" Kaminari added.

"_Midoriya,_" Todoroki said, and then paused. "_You're with the League of Villains?_" For some reason, Izuku suddenly felt very wary.

"They're called the Villain Alliance in this world, but yeah," he confirmed after a moment. "It's, kinda different from our world's version, but it's got some of the same people. Like Magne, Mr. Compress, Twice... Toga..." He froze then, finally realizing just why he'd suddenly felt that sense of foreboding.

And to confirm his fears, Todoroki then pressed, "_Then what about Dabi?_"

Izuku shot Uraraka an absolutely panicked look because _Dabi was Todoroki's brother_ and they did NOT need to dump that on him right now. Seriously, everyone had enough to worry about right now! "He's not part of it in this world!" Uraraka blurted while his brain quietly proceeded shut down so he could internally cry.

"_...How do _you_ know that?_" Todoroki asked after a few seconds, and now Uraraka was the one shooting Izuku a panicked look that got his brain back into gear.

"...He's, uh, not in any of my notebooks?" he replied, voice sounding a bit too high pitched and close to a question. He hastily added, "I mean, I made notes on pretty much everyone in the Alliance, except that person and—_oh crap, Seiko._" He blanched as he remembered Seiko existed, his panic over _Dabi being a Todoroki_ replaced by the sheer discomfort from the odd girl's existence.

"_Seiko?_" Ashido repeated, and he blanched again.

"Don't ask," he begged, whimpering. "_Please,_ don't ask."

"_...Uh, Uraraka?_" Kaminari asked after a few seconds. "_Could you, maybe...?_"

"I haven't met her, so I don't really know her either...?" She shrugged helplessly. "All I know is that she's a kid in like elementary school, and _really_ freaks out Deku for some reason."

"_How scary could a kid be?_" Todoroki asked, sounding more confused than anything.

"_Depends on the kid, I guess,_" Jirou said. "_I... don't think I've heard someone sound genuinely terrified of one before, though...?_"

...They weren't going to let him drop this, were they? Izuku groaned in dismay, realizing he had to tell them _something_. "I don't know what's wrong with her, but there's just something really off about her," he confided miserably. "Every time we meet, she just feels _wrong_, and it feels like every time that feeling just gets _worse_ instead of better. I just—I don't know, I just feel this urge to atay away. And the worst part is, she's always in the shadows. She can merge with them or something, so you never know when she's watching."

"_Wait, could she be listening now then?_" Ashido sounded genuinely alarmed and worried, and Izuku couldn't blame her.

"I don't think so," he replied, shaking his head. "This apartment is apparently the only place she _doesn't_ go, because A—_that person_ made a deal with her or something. I asked Seiko about it too, and she said this place is off-limits. I asked her to tell Kacchan and Shinsou I was leaving anyway, so she'll probably spy on them for a while." He still felt slight guilt for unleashing her on them.

"_Wait, you said her name was Seiko?_" Anjou said suddenly. "_Does she have black hair, cherry blossom hair clip? Eyes kinda like Ashido's, but white instead of yellow?_"

Izuku literally _jumped_ at the description, leaping out of the desk chair. "That's her! That's her _exactly_! Wait," and now he jolted again, eyes bulging as he stared at the phone. "You've _met_ her!?"

"_...Once,_" Anjou said tightly. "_I was visiting my brother and noticed this kid kept popping up and watching us while we were shopping. Kept seeing her at different stores. Freaked me the fuck out, you're understating the creep factor. Those eyes feel freaking _dead._ When I pointed her out to him, he called out to her and told her to stay away from me, and she just vanished. He said she shows up sometimes to watch people when she's bored._"

That... _absolutely_ sounded like something Seiko would do. "_...Anjou-san, why does your brother know someone connected to the League of Villains?_" Todoroki asked.

"_Yeah, I honestly have no idea,_" she admitted after a moment. "_Last I checked he's more active with vigilantes than villains._" Okay, that was worrisome in its own right. "_I don't think he knows her _that_ well though. All he told me is that she finds everything in Odawara interesting._" Izuku paused to consider that, and soon found himself nodding.

"Yeah, that kinda checks out, I think." He still had no idea what Seiko did for the Alliance, but he'd gotten the sense that she did nothing but watch people. Pretty much every time she'd helped him or given him information without him directly prompting her had been to make things more "_interesting_" to observe. "Do you think she'd find whatever is up over there to be as interesting as a bunch of villains?"

"_Probably,_" Anjou replied.

"_Absolutely!_" Ashido chirped confidently.

"_It _is_ pretty unique to this world,_" Todoroki said thoughtfully—and okay, what did _that_ mean?

"So... Anjou's brother's _probably_ not connected to the villains, then?" Uraraka suggested hesitantly.

"Hopefully not," Izuku murmured, while mentally adding, '_I am so sorry._' Being the subject of Seiko's interest was something worth pitying. "But, yeah. That's... That's all the biggest things on my end, I think." He ducked his head as he finished, feeling absolutely miserable. For a moment no one spoke, the air thick with tension.

"_...Okay, I think we can all agree that Midoriya's situation is the most screwed up, and should probably be priority number one,_" Kaminari finally said, and there was a soft chorus of agreement from the rest.

"_Gonna guess you're not up to sharing your location,_" Anjou remarked.

"Not really," Izuku sighed, and then flinched. "Also, I just realized I forgot to mention this, but Kacchan and Shinsou, uh... have bombs on their ankles."

"_...Wait, WHAT?_"

"Yeah." By this point Izuku had grown kind of numb to that part, because he no longer felt any _real_ horror as he continued almost _blandly_, "They're primed to explode if they leave the building, so we'll have to get them off first. No idea how to remove them though, just that there's probably a key."

"_Probably?_" Todoroki repeated.

"They don't have key holes. Still haven't crossed out Shigaraki just disintegrating them."

"_Ah._"

"_Okay, I don't know who this Shigaraki is, but holy shit,_" Kirishima whimpered. "_I _really_ don't want to meet him._"

"_Good, you shouldn't,_" Jirou deadpanned.

"_...Ashido, Todoroki, brief us on the League of Villains after this,_" Anjou ordered. "_We need to know what we're up against, and we shouldn't do it over the phone._"

"_Okay,_" Todoroki agreed, while Ashido said, "_I am so sorry._" Izuku felt like that apology summed it up perfectly.

* * *

They spent nearly two hours on the phone.

Two hours of the most exhausting game of catch-up ever.

By the time they finally ended the call, Ochako felt mentally and physically exhausted. She all but flopped onto the bed with an exhausted groan, while Deku slumped and laid his head on the desk with a moan of his own.

"...That was so much," he mumbled, voice slightly muffled as his face pressed against the wood, and she could only manage a faint grunt of agreement.

After divulging as much of Deku's adventures as they felt safe sharing, the others filled them in on their speculations thus far regarding other dimension jumpers. So far the most likely candidates left, if anyone else _had_ come here, would be Tokoyami and Hagakure. They had a lead on Tokoyami in the form of Phantom Shadow (and she had a _lot_ of research to do about him), but no leads on Hagakure.

They _also_ now had questions about if anyone from 1-B came over since the others had all met at least one person from 1-B, but they all decided to just assume they hadn't until they learned otherwise.

Then, conversation turned to the plan to escape from the Alliance. Deku had explained some more about their current biggest obstacle, the anklets with bombs built into them. A suggestion from Kaminari to try to fry them into a broken state had been _immediately and forcefully_ vetoed by everyone on the call, as had Kirishima's tentative suggestion to bash them with a rock. ("_That's what they do in movies, right?_") Unfortunately, they made no real progress on that front.

On the other hand, Shinsou's suggestion about getting a wheelchair for Aizawa through a wheelchair race had been met with a very amused and comparatively cheerful reception. It was the kind of ridiculous and silly idea they _needed_ to hear after such a heavy conversation, lifting the gloomy mood, so it had felt like a good place to leave off.

Overall, they didn't come away with any new plans. Everyone had been too emotionally drained to do any real planning, and they were also all missing key details they couldn't divulge over the phone. It made it too complicated to decide on any solid course of action right then and there, so they'd all agreed to take a day to process everything and have another call the next day. They were reluctant to postpone the conversation since Deku probably wouldn't be able to join tomorrow, but Ochako could relay the key points to him later.

Which meant she had plenty of time to properly freak out about what they'd realized.

"Todoroki is Yuki," she said hollowly as she stared at the ceiling. "Todoroki is Dabi's _missing brother_."

"Mmhmm," Deku moaned miserably, face still firmly planted on his desk.

"_Are_ they actually brothers?" Ochako mused aloud with a frown. "Could they be like, not actually _blood_ brothers, but he adopted him in this world...? I mean, Todoroki didn't recognize him back at the training camp, right? And Dabi was really nice to me. So maybe he's just really nice to runaways in general, and kinda adopted him after he ran away?" Deku made another muffled groan/grunt, and she rolled her head to look at him. "...Deku, can't you say something? Please?"

"...Dabi's eyes are really blue, and it was dark at the training camp but I noticed because they kinda matched his fire. And his Quirk is fire, which isn't _too_ rare but when I think about it, fire _and_ blue eyes? I don't really know what _shade_ his eyes were because it was dark, but Todoroki's one eye is blue, and so are Endeavor's. And besides all that, Todoroki didn't really spend much time with his siblings as a kid because of Endeavor's training. So if Dabi was his brother and left, and got all those scars _afterwards_, Todoroki might not recognize him."

The mumbling was slightly muffled by his desk, but Ochako still heard it clearly and felt her nose scrunch up. "...So they're probably biological siblings then," she summed up, and he made a miserable sound of affirmation. _Darn it._ "Do we tell him tomorrow?"

"I don't _know_," Deku groaned, somehow pushing his head against the table even more. "He has every right to know and we can't hide it forever, but there's so much going on, we don't need to deal with _that_, too."

"But if we tell him, Dabi might be able to help us," Ochako pointed out with a frown. "Deku, I spoke to him and I'm telling you, he's a _good_ person in this world. He went out of his way to help me, and the way he talked, he was genuinely worried about Todoroki! And I feel like we need every ally we can get right now."

"We do," he agreed reluctantly. "I haven't seen him or that lizard guy—uh, Kacchan said he was called Spinner, I think...?—in my notebooks in this world, so I don't think he's connected to the Alliance." He lifted his head and turned to look at her with a frown. "But, you're _sure_ he's good in this world?"

Ochako bit her lip and looked down. She wanted to say _yes_, but the fact was that she'd only met Dabi in person once. He'd been nice and helpful enough at the time, but one meeting didn't mean she knew _everything_ about him. Then there was the fact he'd been the one to point her to Nabu in the first place when she mentioned the Villain Alliance—

She froze and then suddenly lunged to the desk to snatch up her burner phone. Deku startled at the abrupt movement, yelping a surprised, "U-Uraraka?"

Ochako didn't respond, opening up the messages with Dabi. She hadn't texted him again after letting him know she'd made it safely and was staying with Aiko, and her mouth thinned as she read over the short exchange. "Deku," she said. "When I texted Dabi, he sent me this." She turned the screen to show him the last text he'd sent:

_ '__Listen to her and stay away from the Alliance. Also stay away from anything chemistry related. You're still playing a dangerous game kid.'_

Deku's eyes widened as he read it, reaching the same conclusion. "Wait, _chemistry_?" he squeaked, face draining of all color as he gave an involuntary shudder. "Y-you don't think...?"

"Aiko's the friend he mentioned," Ochako confirmed gravely, and he grimaced. Recruiting Dabi's help was probably out if he knew Aiko. They couldn't risk him telling her about their plans. "...We _are_ still going to tell him anyway, right?"

She didn't need to clarify what she meant. "You said Dabi's looking for him, so chances are he'll find Todoroki sooner or later," Deku said with a resigned nod. "It's better to let him know so he's prepared for it. And even if that wasn't going on, he deserves to know anyway," he added with a frown. "Especially since this affects him in _both_ worlds." Ochako could only nod in grim agreement.

The tricky part would be the timing. This was the kind of revelation that could easily derail, well, _everything_. If she were in his shoes, she wouldn't be able to focus on anything else for a while, even getting home from another world. On top of that they couldn't just do it over a giant group call, this probably wasn't something he'd want everyone to know.

To think, Dabi and Todoroki were brothers... Ochako wasn't sure if _that_ was the most shocking part, or the fact that it meant Dabi was _Endeavor's son_. For the son of the now-number one Pro Hero to join the League of Villains? "I wonder what made Dabi turn to villainy in our world," she mused to herself. Across from her she noticed Deku suddenly pause as if a thought occurred to him, making her frown. "Deku?"

His face scrunched up as he looked down, clearly struggling with himself. "...I might have _some_ ideas," he finally said after several long seconds. "But I can't tell you because it involves some personal information Todoroki told me, and I don't think he'd like me telling everyone." That made her frown grow further, because that _definitely_ sounded ominous.

(Besides, she might have a guess as to what he thought. Todoroki hadn't hidden his resentment towards his father the few times he came up in conversation, there was definitely _some_ sort of history there.)

"Well, we should probably tell him when he's alone," she decided. No point in pressing for details now, she'd respect Todoroki's privacy.

"I guess we could ask for his phone number," Deku agreed. "Just... need a way to ask without sounding suspicious." Ochako paused, glancing at her phone. Then, slowly, she began typing.

'_Hey, can you give me Yuki's number? If he has his phone, maybe he'll answer if I call him._' As she pressed send Deku came over to peer at the screen, eyes widening as he read it.

"Wait, do you think he'd have the number?" he yelped.

"They _did_ say Todoroki still has the phone he woke up with," Ochako replied almost sullenly. "And Dabi told me he's been calling it, too." Even as she spoke the phone chimed with a next text, and they both looked down to see a reply.

'_Sure, go for it. If he answers, tell him I say "what the fuck" I'd get more specific but there's too much BS_'

He followed it with another text with just a phone number, and they grimaced. "...I'll wait five minutes and say he didn't answer," she said.

"Yeah, that works," Deku agreed, and they both heaved heavy sighs.

* * *

**To everyone looking forward to the Dabi bombshell: sorry, now is not the time. They'll tell him soon, but this call isn't the time or place.**

**Question for next time: what would be the most hilarious and inappropriate way to drop the Dabi bombshell?**


	55. Chapter 55: Business as Usual

Chapter 55

.::Business as Usual::.

Katsuki had been _just_ about to kick Eyebags's ass for the third race in a row when the creepy Shadow Brat suddenly appeared. And because this was the creepy shadow brat, she didn't just knock on the door or anything like that. No, she literally _appeared out of_ _fucking no where_ in the corner of the room. One second the corner was empty, and the next suddenly the _freaking demon brat_ was there watching them.

Katsuki actually flung his controller when he noticed her in his peripheral vision, making him curse loudly. Hijack hadn't noticed her until Katsuki reacted, but once he turned his head and saw her he jumped and dropped his controller too. If not for the stupid damn muzzle, he might have actually yelped or something going by that muffled grunt he made. Even the cat jumped up and darted behind them, back arching and all the hair on its back sticking up as it hissed.

The creepy brat didn't react to them, just looked at them with that creepy blank look on her face. "The fuck do you want?" Katsuki hissed, and her head tilted to the side.

"Izuku has to go to Aiko's apartment. He asked me to tell you he would return later."

"Right, thanks," he seethed, grinding his teeth as he tried not to look at her. He got up to retrieve the controller and returned to the couch, gaze pointedly focused on the screen. Hijack was busy trying to soothe Sushi, not that Katsuki could blame the cat. The fact even a fucking cat was hissing at Seiko just cemented what he already knew: there was something _seriously fucking wrong_ with her.

In the handful of times they'd met, Katsuki had noticed some things that had absolutely nothing to do with her mysterious shadow Quirk. Like the fact she never blinked, how whenever she walked she made no sound, or that she never showed _any_ emotion. And those eyes—forget the inverted-white-iris thing, plenty of people had eyes like that. No, her eyes just had _nothing_ in them at all.

Katsuki had always kinda scoffed at all that flowery stuff in books describing the "spark of life" in people's eyes, but after meeting Seiko he now believed in it because she sure as hell didn't have it. He couldn't even call them dead inside because that would imply there'd been something there to begin with, and somehow it felt like they'd _always_ been that way.

But even _that_ wasn't what finally did in his nerves.

No, that was the fact _she didn't even seem to fucking breathe_.

Even now in the corner of his eye, he couldn't see any signs she was breathing. Usually if you looked at a person closely enough, you could see the rise and fall of their chests or stomach. But this brat had none of that. No rise and fall of her chest, no minute twitches, absolutely fucking _nothing moved_ unless she tilted her head or walked.

She seemed closer to a mannequin than an actual, _living_ being, only separated by those creepy-ass eyes that were already wrong enough on their own.

And worst of all: _she wasn't leaving_.

No, instead she turned to look at the television. "The race is still ongoing."

"I _noticed_," Katsuki hissed. The race hadn't paused when he threw the controller, and he and Hijack's racers just sat perfectly still. The computer racers had definitely finished by now, meaning they'd be competing to see who _wasn't_ last place. He scowled as he opened the menu to restart the race. "Oi, Eyebags. Stop petting the cat, we're starting over." Hijack grunted but picked up his controller, side-eying the creepy brat for only a few seconds before focusing on the screen.

To Katsuki's annoyance though, she didn't leave. She was just _there_, in the corner of his eye like a dark shadow watching them play. It made the air ten times tenser than it had any right to be. The cat was obviously agitated too, curled up behind Hijack and glaring at her. All in all, it made it ridiculously hard to focus on the stupid game.

They got through three races before the vigilante wonder finally put down his controller to grab his phone. "_Do you want to play?_" he asked, and Katsuki ground his teeth.

He didn't know if he was relieved by the simple, "No." He'd rather not play with her. But even then, instead of dropping it like any _sane_ person the idiot _kept typing on his fucking phone._

"_Do you go to school?_" the electronic voice asked, and what the hell? Where'd _that_ come from?

"I do not," Seiko responded flatly (and _damn_ if it wasn't ironic that the fucking _phone_ sounded more expressive than she did).

"_Seriously?_" Katsuki growled to Hijack. "Why the hell are you asking her that?" The vigilante just shrugged as he typed something again.

"_Toga doesn't have homework. Midoriya said there's another teen our age who doesn't either. Makes me curious._" Katsuki started to respond but then paused because that was actually a good point. That misty fucker seemed weirdly caught up about making sure they kept up with homework even though Deku was, you know, _legally dead_.

He turned to squint at Seiko. "Why the hell doesn't that mist bastard make _you_ do any homework? Aren't you an _actual_ kid?"

"School is boring," Seiko responded simply, and that had to be the closest she'd ever come to sounding like a normal kid.

"Have you even _been_ to school?" Katsuki griped, because as far as he could tell Seiko sure as hell wasn't a prisoner like them. She was probably _born_ into this shit or something, and villains didn't seem to care about education (besides Kurogiri for some stupid reason, which made it even weirder he didn't seem to care about Seiko).

"Briefly. It was boring. Most of the children were also mean."

"_You were bullied?_" Hijack asked, probably looking for some common thread to grasp.

"No." Well, _that_ cleared up absolutely nothing, and Katsuki doubted they'd get anything else out of her.

"_That's too bad. School feels normal._" Now Katsuki found himself pausing again, shooting the vigilante a quizzical look. Seiko was unexpressive as always, a slight head tilt the only visual indicator of any sort of interest.

"What do you mean?"

"_I had to stop going to school and run away. School was bad and I hated it, but now I miss how normal it was._" As the electronic voice parroted his typing Katsuki suddenly realized what Eyebags was trying to do, and if Seiko wasn't there he might have actually laughed out loud.

He was trying to take a page from Deku's book and get her on their side with _fucking schoolwork_. For some reason, working on homework seemed to be Deku's go-to strategy for getting people to trust him. It had even somehow ended up extending to _Eraserhead_ after Mistface decided all of them needed to do schoolwork for some stupid reason.

Katsuki didn't know if that was brilliant or stupid. _Did_ they want Seiko on their side?

...After thinking about it for a second, he decided he at least didn't want her as an _enemy_. They had no idea when the hell she was watching them, creepy brat seemed to be able to just totally merge with the shadows. Trying to plan around her was annoying. Better to convert her to their side if they could.

"Tch, if you've been here as long as I think you probably don't even know what normal is," he huffed. "But Eyebags is right. Homework is probably the most normal thing we can do in this dump." Which in turn made it the _weirdest_ activity of all, but _whatever_. "We're working on stuff that's probably too advanced for you, but that Eraserhead guy should be able to at least go over basics or something—"

"_No._" The word was so abrupt and _sharp_ it had Katsuki actually startling. "I have delivered Izuku's message. Watching you play games is boring, so I'll leave."

With that she turned and stepped into the shadows, the darkness seeming to reach out to swallow her. When she vanished Katsuki just sat in silence for a few seconds, staring at the empty space. _What the actual hell?_ For the briefest of seconds after she'd said "no" he'd seen a steely glint in her eyes, her mouth pulled into a frown. Just as soon as it appeared her face was back to its perpetually empty state though.

_Did that actually happen?_ When he glanced at Eyebags he was staring at the space she'd been with wide eyes, and when he glanced at Katsuki he could practically _see_ the question in his eyes.

"You saw that too, right?" Katsuki asked. He didn't even elaborate on what he meant, but he got a slow nod. So it wasn't his imagination.

Why the hell did talking about _school_ work her up so much?

* * *

Kuroe heaved a quiet sigh as he leaned against the wall, watching his breath create a small puff of warm air amid the bitter chill. Today was not the kind of day he wanted to spend outside for too long. Though it wasn't snowing, every gust of wind made his teeth chatter and regret not bringing a scarf. At least it wasn't cold enough to make his _eyeballs_ ache, those were the worst.

Quiet footsteps made him glance towards the deeper part of the alley. "You're late," he grumbled irritably.

"Sorry, you know I'm a busy man," came the insincere reply. A man in a dark coat stepped out, long black hair pulled into a tight ponytail and face hidden behind a scarf and goggles. The man would almost look _normal_ if Kuroe couldn't see the hilt of a sword over his shoulder.

"Guessing the knives are under your coat," he remarked idly as they began walking. "If it wasn't for the sword, I might've not recognized you. So weird to see the great Stendhal without his famous mask."

"Very funny," Stendhal grunted, no doubt rolling his eyes. He didn't sound irritated or angry, which Kuroe counted as a victory. Talking to the vigilante always felt risky; he was fully aware he had absolutely no defense against the guy if he decided to attack him, other than his own twisted sense of honor. "Meisanki, how are the kids doing?"

"They're mostly fine, probably," Kuroe responded with a shrug. "I'm not too involved so can't give you any big details, but they're all alive and in one piece. Helped get a new recruit recently I think, and Ran invited some friends over for _something_. No idea what that's about, but my house was invaded by teenagers last night. Starting to think they're planning some giant mission."

Stendhal grunted but didn't press for details. "Tch. As long as the brats remember what I taught them, they'll be fine. But if you think they're doing something stupid or dangerous, _call me,_" he added, shooting him a pointed look.

"Don't need to tell me twice," Kuroe replied, openly rolling his eyes. Stendhal was a strange and intimidating man, the kind of unhinged guy who Kuroe couldn't really predict even after knowing him for years. Every time he thought he'd gotten a read on the man, he'd find himself proven brutally wrong.

The one thing he knew for sure though was that Stendhal would kill _anyone_ who threatened the runaways. Not because he cared about kids or anything like that. Truth be told, the guy probably lacked a single paternal bone in his body. He was just making sure those kids wouldn't waste their talents or turn to villainy, whether willingly or unwillingly.

Honestly, out of the handful of adults associated with the runaway network, Stendhal had nearly the least involvement. The guy didn't exactly hang around Odawara or anything after all. He only knew about the network because he followed some of the kids to Kuroe's house thinking they were caught up in some bigger villainous organization. His involvement would have probably ended after that frankly _terrifying_ interrogation if he hadn't been loosely teaching a couple of homeless kids to be vigilantes.

(Even now, Kuroe kind of wanted to laugh hysterically at the memory of Stendhal just dumping the stunned-looking kids on his doorstep. The heart attack had not been fun, but at least they got some kids with actual combat experience to teach the others.)

Still, having Stendhal willing to help out had its perks. Namely, Kuroe didn't need to worry about his safety so much while dealing with the _other_ adult party involved with the runaway network.

"Remember, no stabbing," he reminded the man shortly as they turned into another alleyway. "And _please_, just let me do the talking."

"I know the drill," Stendhal growled irritably, but didn't say anything else as Kuroe knocked on a door. Footsteps could be heard on the other side, and then in a scene straight out of a detective noir film a slat on the door slid open to reveal a pair of eyes.

"Password?" a gruff voice asked, even further copying movies and fraying at Kuroe's patience.

"Since when was there a password?" he snapped back, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Did Setsuno or Miura put you up to this? Actually, never mind, just open the door already Hojo. We've got an appointment with your boss." The slat closed and soon the door opened, revealing an imposing-looking bald man who seemed to tower over him.

_This._ _This_ was why Kuroe was happy to have Stendhal around. If the vigilante wasn't behind him ready to defend him at the first sign of hostility, Kuroe doubted he could keep up his composed façade. It didn't matter how often he saw Hojo, the guy's muscles looked like he could snap Kuroe's neck with a flick of the wrist, Quirk or no Quirk.

Thankfully Stendhal _was_ here though, so Kuroe had minimal difficulty keeping up his façade as they followed him inside. "Boss is busy today, so the meeting will have to be short," Hojo informed them, and Kuroe nodded, pulling a face mask from his pocket to cover his mouth.

"That's fine, this won't take long for our end." Honestly it was a _relief_, he hated spending too much time around these people. Hojo led them to a long-familiar door and knocked twice, waiting for someone to call, "You may enter," before pushing it open. He stepped aside so Kuroe could enter, Stendhal trailing behind him silently.

The room was a fairly nice one. Nothing too fancy, a nice sitting room of sorts with two leather couches facing each other on either side of a coffee table with a thick folder sitting on top of it. The couch facing the door was occupied by a lone figure, an aged man with slicked back silver hair in a dark hakama, while two more men in suits stood behind him.

Kuroe immediately dipped his torso into a respectful bow. "Hello, sir. Thank you for coming to Odawara to meet with us."

"You can raise your head," the man responded smoothly. "Take a seat so we can begin." Kuroe straightened and walked over to the empty couch, sitting down while Stendhal hovered behind him. He glanced briefly at the two other people behind the other man, one large and muscular and clearly meant to be the muscle. The other had a slimmer, smaller figure, with closely cropped hair and a black mask over his mouth.

He was the one who stepped forward at his boss's nod, speaking almost monotonously. "Since the last meeting, the Shie Hassaikai has intercepted three villainous groups who attempted to enter Odawara. Two were turned over to the proper authorities. One group's members proved more difficult to apprehend, and were dealt with accordingly." In other words, probably killed. _Lovely._ The man's golden eyes narrowed as he added, "We were unable to detect Gentle Criminal's presence in advance, however."

"That is fine," Kuroe replied. "We already judged Gentle Criminal and his accomplices to not be a threat to the safety of Odawara. My employer does not find this to be a worrisome failure, and it will have no impact on our opinion of your performance." The man's expression smoothed and he nodded before continuing.

"As usual, we have compiled reports on each group for your employer's perusal. I suspect the group we could not deliver to authorities is tied to a larger organization, and detailed my theories in the report." He nodded at the folder sitting on the table.

"If your employer desires, we are prepared to form a team under Chisaki's command to further investigate this matter," the boss added coolly. "He has already selected several potential members from our own ranks for this investigation. We shall leave the final decision in your hands."

"We'll tell you our decision once we finish reading the report," Kuroe responded, taking the folder. "Thank you for your hard work as always. The Shie Hassaikai continues to live up to its reputation. As for our end, we have secured a majority of the supplies you requested to be delivered by the end of the week, as well as an updated list of criminal organizations that may wish to oppose or challenge your power. As we speak, my employer is personally handling one such group."

He pulled out a memory card as he spoke and placed it on the table where the folder had been, which the third man took and slid into his pocket. "There will be no issues with the payments, I trust," the boss commented, and Kuroe nodded.

"As usual, we will need to review your work before wiring it. However, given the usual quality of your work, I expect you will get the full payment as usual."

The boss nodded once. "Then if that is all, we can end the meeting." Kuroe nodded as he got up, dipping into another bow.

"Thank you once more for your efforts. I look forward to our continued relationship in the future."

"As do I," the boss replied, and Kuroe took it for the dismissal it was and headed out, Stendhal trailing behind him silently. Only after they got back to the alley and the door closed did he heave a tired sigh, his nerves thoroughly frayed.

Meeting with Yakuza was always stressful, but if it meant keeping Odawara and those kids safe he'd do it. It was the least they could do.

* * *

Around the same time, Aiko sat on a rafter overlooking a room full of corpses. Only one of them was the result of her own hand, the rest the result of brutal infighting that quickly got derailed and turned into a slaughter.

"Hah, didn't expect this," she remarked to the silent room, propping her chin in her hands as she surveyed the carnage below her. Her intention had only been to incite a small fight to break up the gang. The group was full of strong and capable individuals, banding together because of some common goals, but overall they had no _real_ unity. She figured after some rough-housing and one or two deaths, they'd split up and the group would never meet again.

In her defense, none of them had expected that their group would attract the the attention of a homicidal maniac who had a Quirk that built up his muscles and loved nothing more than the thrill of a good fight.

The guy had burst into the warehouse quite literally, breaking the wall with a vicious laugh. Aiko had only needed one look to recognize him. _Muscular, epithet "The Carnal Murderer." Serial killer with powerful combat aptitude, most notable for killing a total of four heroes in three separate occasions. Fighting style is highly efficient and clearly experienced with picking out weaknesses, and Quirk grants him immense durability and strength._

Most of the observations came from watching him quite literally slaughter the others there. The group did have some pretty strong and skilled fighters, some of whom managed to hold their ground for a surprising amount of time. Alas, none could stand up to him though. He had actually nearly knocked off Aiko's head with a swipe of his fist at one point, the closest she'd come to death in years.

Unfortunately for him, Muscular's super-thick muscles weren't immune to poisons. Or flesh-melting acid.

"Oiwa's facewash is potent as ever," she murmured, eying the man's largely melted body with mild disdain. It hadn't completely dissolved or anything, but given she'd liberally doused him with her homemade acid, and his Quirk happened to make use of his muscles, well... it wasn't pretty.

Either way, by the end of the night everyone was dead, and Aiko's disguise was ruined.

Also, she'd lost her foot.

That had been a last-minute development. She'd jumped up to the safety of the rafters but the bastard had grabbed her foot to try to stop her. At that point she decided it was better to cut her losses and just _let_ her foot tear off, using his moment of surprise to hurl the vial of her lovely homemade acid at his chest. He'd dropped her foot before clawing at the injury, causing it to spread to his fingers too, but she'd decided to play it safe and wait for him to stop twitching before going down.

Now that the body had stilled she slid off the rafter and gently floated the twenty or so feet to the floor, right next to her fallen foot. It looked a bit crushed when she picked it off, and she ripped off the boot to confirm the mangled appendage had indeed been largely crushed his grip. A quick ripple of energy had it filling out to its normal proportions, bones audibly snapping into the proper place, and she lifted her leg to quickly reattach it to the stump.

"_Fuck,_ I hate this part," she hissed as she felt a surge of pain, squeezing her eyes shut. She rotated her ankle to make sure she hadn't messed up the positioning, and growled in irritation as she put it down to find her footing was now uneven. Great, now she had to get rid of the other boot.

Worse than the pain though: she could feel her muscles _tingling_.

She turned her back on the corpse as she pulled out her burner phone from her pocket, dialing one of the few contacts she'd bothered to program into it. "_Hello?_" a curious voice greeted.

"Himiko, I just had to reattach my foot and _it is tingling_," she said through gritted teeth. "Distract me, _now._"

"_Ooh, then how about the latest gossip!_" Himiko replied gleefully. "_Let's see, you were just here yesterday so you know about the stuff then... Did you hear about Mr. Comnpress's magic show?_"

"Yes, he bragged about it while you were helping put out the fire Slycer started," Aiko replied dryly. She still couldn't believe he managed to get booked for a birthday party somehow, and he had plans to do it _normally_.

"_Okay, so I guess you don't need to know about it. All his blabbering about it is kinda annoying anyway so I don't want to talk about it. What else, what else..._"

"Maybe something about Izuku?" Aiko suggested, trying to ignore the steady tingling around her ankle. "You know, like maybe how _Katsuki got kidnapped._"

"_Sorry, Mido-chan made me promise not to tell you!_" Himiko replied, sounding absolutely unapologetic. "_He knew you'd be mad._"

"Himiko. Just tell me what they're doing. Distraction, _please_."

"_Well, I don't know much. They mostly play games, but they won't really let me play with them. Not even Jackie._" She could hear the pout in Himiko's voice, before she quickly switched gears and exclaimed, "_Oh, oh, I know! Giri says Jackie and Blasty have to start learning too, so they're doing schoolwork!_"

"Leave it to him to try to instill _some_ normalcy," Aiko muttered, rolling her eyes. It had been his idea to homeschool Izuku, since he obviously wouldn't be following in any of _their_ footsteps as a villain. They had all agreed to keep him as far from their more insidious activities as possible, and school would be his best bet at normalcy, even if it wasn't formal schooling. "So what, they're getting the homeschool routine as well?"

"_You could say that,_" Himiko giggled lowly, and her tone had Aiko's eyes narrowing. The teenager had clearly just realized something she considered juicy, and given her personality that could mean anything. "_Hey, Aiko-nee, did you know Tomu-chan got Mido-chan a pet?_"

"Yes, Himiko. I've met Sushi the fifteenth." The number wasn't an exaggeration, she'd kept count of all the cats that Kurogiri inevitably named Sushi. That one litter of kittens had _really_ inflated the count.

Himiko just giggled again, making Aiko's eyes narrow further. "_Oh, I don't mean Sushi-chan,_" she sang. "_He got him _another_ pet._"

"Another? What do you—" Aiko paused, suddenly recalling Izuku's panic on Monday, at which point her palm met her face. "...You're talking about that hero, aren't you."

"_Yep!_" Himiko confirmed with a delighted cackle, and Aiko groaned. She'd suspected that Tomura had captured that hero because he was one of Izuku's favorites, otherwise he would have probably just killed whoever it was on the spot. Still, giving him to Izuku as a _pet_? She had no doubt the idiot literally introduced the captured hero to Izuku as a pet.

"Fuck it, I'm buying a parenting book," she grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Should've done that back when he tried showing Izuku photos of his favorite heroes beaten up, but whatever. Who is it, anyway?"

"_You'll never guess. Go on, try!_"

Normally she'd humor the request, but right now? "Himiko, I am currently surrounded by corpses, one of which I _melted_, and also, my ankle is _fucking tingling_." She _really_ couldn't emphasize how bad the tingling was. It didn't hurt, but it was fucking awful and bringing back so many bad memories. "I am _this_ close to a meltdown. I am not in the mood to play guessing games."

"_Aw, that's too bad, but I understand. But I think you'll really like the answer!_" Himiko giggled again, a drawn-out demented sound that just frayed at her already short patience.

"_Himiko,_" she growled, and the girl gave a final giggle before answering.

"_It's Eraserhead-san!_" she sing-songed, and Aiko blinked in surprise. _Eraserhead?_ Memories from years ago quickly surged to her mind, and her free hand absently reached towards her neck where she'd sometimes wear the goggles when not working.

"Huh," she said faintly. "Last I heard he's been missing since late April. Where'd they find—" She stopped short again as she made the obvious connection with the raid that day, at which point she slapped her forehead. _Again._ "Are you _kidding_ me. How the hell did I miss _him_? I knew those guys captured a hero! I heard them gossiping about it while scouting the place! Why the hell didn't I look into it?"

Himiko just laughed as she grumbled to herself. "_So, you'll be coming by tomorrow, right?_" Aiko heaved a sigh as she dragged a hand down her face, willing the last of her frustration to leave with the breath. With that breath she let her mouth quirk upwards, a smirk taking root on her face.

"Oh, most definitely," she agreed easily. It had been so long since she'd seen Eraserhead. If he'd been captured anyway, she might as well go say hello.

She didn't even notice the tingling anymore.

* * *

**Enter: Stendhal and Overhaul. ****Also I'll confirm that yes, the Shie Hassaikai is still led by the original leader. Let's just say the yakuza got some more business opportunities in this world so they didn't go through the decline that led Chisaki to go semi-crazy. Similar story for Stendhal not becoming Stain...**

**Fun fact: ****originally the scene with Aiko included a brief fight with Muscular (still ending with a healthy lethal dose of Oiwa's facewash to the chest and face), but I decided that'd make her seem too Mary Sue-ish. On that note, ****I've planned for Aiko to have a flesh-melting acid called "Oiwa's facewash" for a long time now, but while writing this chapter I realized that would be GREAT for fighting Muscular.  
**

**Question for next time: Who would be the worst/most chaotic person to eavesdrop on the call from the last few chapters?  
**


	56. Chapter 56: White Noise

**Brief content warning: This chapter features dissociation symptoms.** (I think, anyway. I have no personal experience with dissociation, but this chapter definitely seems to line up with the symptoms.)

Chapter 56

.::White Noise::.

Izuku stared at his notebook in sullen silence, rereading some of the messages he'd scrawled onto the page over the past half hour before running out of space.

'_We found some friends that can help. We told them everything and they want to help_'

'_Uraraka got in contact with some friends outside that can help. We talked on the phone_'

'_We got in touch with some people who can help us. They're just teens, not heroes or police, but_'

'_We found some allies outside. I can't say their names or give much information, but they're good_'

Those were only a portion of the lines that filled the page, but he couldn't feel bothered to read all of them. Every single paragraph had been cut off mid-sentence, losing steam partway through as he repeatedly realized how _bad_ each one sounded.

Izuku wanted to tell Kacchan and Shinsou about the latest developments with contacting the others so badly, because they suddenly had at _least_ five more allies. A total of five people from his world, along with some potential extra allies from the connections they'd made in this world like Anjou and this world's Kirishima, maybe even Hatsume. This was honestly the best news he'd gotten since waking up in this world!

But as amazing as this was, he couldn't tell them _everything_. Dropping the "_I'm from another world, and I found more of my people_" bombshell wouldn't go over well. That meant he'd need to give some other explanation for _how_ he found them, and... he couldn't think of anything, really.

Given he'd lived with the Alliance since he was eight, he had no way to explain how _he_ knew them without making the others seem like suspicious people. Saying Uraraka knew them would be too vague and could make them just as wary, especially since Izuku had told them he couldn't remember how he knew Uraraka. He finally figured he could just go with "we found allies" without going into specifics, but then he realized all they did so far was just brief the others on the situation. They hadn't made any solid plans or anything, he had nothing useful to report yet.

And on top of all that, Izuku was too wary to say any of this out loud. He didn't want to risk anyone overhearing them (namely Seiko), hence his decision to try to write a letter outlining it. He figured it would be safer for them to read it, and then have Kacchan destroy the paper. But obviously that wasn't working so far. Each version would raise questions he couldn't really answer without raising alarm bells of some sort.

He sighed as he tore the page out of the notebook and ripped it up into tiny pieces, dropping some into the trash can and shoving the rest into his pockets. As much as he wanted to tell them the good news, tonight probably wouldn't be the best time. He just couldn't think of a good way to break the news right now. Izuku wouldn't put it off _forever_, he'd probably do it tomorrow, but right now he just didn't have any ideas on how to approach all of this.

For now he got up and left his bedroom, dropping off the remaining shreds of paper in a couple of trashcans along the way as he headed towards the bar. Given it was a Saturday evening it was a bit busier than usual, the chatter audible even with the door closed. Izuku gulped as he opened it just a crack, peeking out into the dimly lit space to quickly skim the room.

Some patrons he recognized from seeing around the Alliance's base, but many others were clearly outsiders. Magne was talking to some guy at the bar with a smirk, clearly flirting with him, while Mr. Compress sat a table showed off some card tricks to the people there. His stomach rolled though as he recognized one of the magician's audience members as X-Less, a Pro Hero in his own world. He wore a near-identical version of his costume, just missing the cape and looking a bit more ragged.

Izuku quickly shook his head and pushed the door open a little more. It was behind the counter, so once he opened it further he could see Kurogiri talking to one of the patrons. The misty man poured a glass in front of the woman (who Izuku _thought_ he vaguely recognized as a sidekick from coverage of the Kamino aftermath), and as he turned to place the bottle back on the shelf he caught sight of Izuku.

As soon as they made eye contact he subtly inclined his head, and Izuku quickly retreated back into the hall. Less than a minute later the door opened again and Kurogiri stepped through. "I assume you are here for Eraserhead's dinner?" he intoned smoothly, and Izuku nodded sheepishly.

"Yeah. Um, sorry for the trouble." He'd been getting Aizawa's meal himself for most of the week, but after Slycer's cooking disaster the previous night, Kurogiri had banned nearly everyone from the kitchen. He'd put together an approved list of cooks, and apparently this world's Izuku didn't make the cut. Given some of the cooking misadventures with Toga he'd written about in his journals, he didn't blame the man.

"It's fine," Kurogiri said, already leading the way to the kitchen. "I already finished preparations for the meal you requested and left it in the fridge."

"Ah, thank you so much." Izuku smiled more genuinely now, feeling a rush of relief. He'd asked Kurogiri to make some sushi rolls instead of the usual sandwiches. It was simple and clean to eat without utensils, perfect for the mittens. Even better: the meal was one of the few things he'd seen Aizawa actually eat in his own world besides his jelly pouches. He'd eaten them on _two_ occasions, so Izuku figured it might be something he liked a little more than most food.

When they arrived at the kitchen and opened the fridge, Izuku was pleased to see a tray of sushi that looked exactly like he remembered. He hadn't known exactly what kind it was, but his description had apparently been enough for Kurogiri to figure out the fillings. "Thanks," he repeated as he took the plate. "And uh, sorry for making such a weird request on such short notice."

"It's fine," Kurogiri dismissed him. "I must get back to the bar now. If you need any other food, consult the list for someone else."

"Will do," Izuku promised with a smile, and the two parted ways. As he got closer to Aizawa's cell his smile faded though, his shoulders becoming heavier and stepped more weighted with apprehension. By the time he finally arrived he found himself hesitating outside the door, free hand poised to knock. All he could think of was Aizawa's glare from that morning, making his chest feel tight with discomfort.

_Just get it over with,_ he told himself, and rapped on the door before pushing it open. "Eraserhead, sir?" he called softly. "I have dinner." He got no response and slipped inside quietly, hoping it meant the man was asleep. At least then they'd be able to avoid the confrontation.

Alas, his hopes were quickly dashed though when he found himself on the receiving end of an icy glare from Aizawa as he laid on the floor. If he had any doubts about the man's feelings towards him, they were gone now. He didn't even bother trying to mask his mistrust and loathing now that they were alone.

Seeing the dark glower usually reserved for villains made Izuku's stomach churn, and he quietly gulped as he crept over with the plate. "I got some really good sushi rolls tonight," he offered, setting it down in reaching distance of the hero as he sat on the floor. "Kurogiri made it special. I think he said it's got cucumber, mitsuba and shiitake mushrooms...?" He trailed off more questioningly than he intended, and hoped that didn't make it sound suspicious.

Aizawa eyed the plate for a moment before finally turning his head to continue staring the ceiling, effectively snubbing the meal, much to Izuku's dismay. He never thought Aizawa of all people would outright ignore food like this to make a point. It felt so childish and illogical to go on a hunger strike when he was a prisoner. Unless he thought the food was poisoned of course, which made Izuku wince and feel guilty for _different_ reasons—

"I hope you realize how screwed up this is."

The man's voice startled Izuku, jolting and looking at him wide-eyed. Aizawa still didn't look at him, pointedly facing the ceiling, and Izuku swallowed harshly.

"I... Yeah, I know," he said quietly.

"Do you really?" Aizawa challenged lowly, voice almost bland, _bored_, despite the harshness of it. Izuku flinched at the clear implications, the guilty pang and pit in his stomach feeling even worse.

"Of course I do," he whispered. "It's not right to lock people up, or kidnap someone, or... m-muzzle them... o-or... b-b-_break_ their..." His voice grew shakier with each word and he trailed off with a grimace, trying not to look at Aizawa's broken leg at the last part. He hung his head shamefully, hands clenching at his side. "This is all wrong. It's all really, _really_ messed up."

"And yet you don't even do anything." The words had Izuku jolting, head snapping up wide-eyed to find Aizawa leering at him from the corner of his eye. "You don't try to tell your 'brother' how screwed up this is, you don't try to get the _fucking muzzle_ off that other kid. You just go along with it all and act like nothing's wrong, as if this is perfectly normal and fine."

"What? No. No!" Izuku shook his head furiously, the accusation hitting him even harder than everything else so far. "I'm not trying to do that or ignore it, it's just—just... what can I even do?" He deflated and slumped as he felt his energy drain, staring at the floor miserably. "I'm just one kid surrounded by a bunch of villains. I can't do anything on my own." It was a fact he'd realized soon after waking up, and was why he'd been so relieved to recruit the others. Izuku was in way over his head, and the feeling of helplessness made it hard to sleep at night.

"You're right, you can't," Aizawa commented calmly, surprising Izuku. The man still faced the ceiling, very pointedly not looking at him as he continued. "The Alliance is full of dangerous people that have killed heroes with years of training and experience. Fighting them would be suicidal for a Pro Hero, let alone a teenage kid with no training or even a Quirk."

The last words hit Izuku like a brick, stomach sinking and an icy chill washing over him. The words weren't meant as an insult, weren't a jab at him, but hearing it still brought up a wave of pain he'd been trying to forget. It had been so long since he'd been spoken as _lesser_ because of his lack of Quirk, treated as someone who just wasn't capable because he lacked something everyone else had. Hearing it from a teacher he respected—even another world's counterpart—made it hurt even worse.

He bit his lip as he looked away, silently willing himself not to cry. Given the Midoriya family's penchant for tears, it took a lot more self control than he'd like. "Then... Then what do you expect me to do?" he forced out, trying not to focus on the last bit. "There's nothing—"

"You can leave," Aizawa cut in. "You're not a prisoner, you don't _have_ to stay here. You can call for help, report this place to the police or heroes. You've had _years_ to do that, even before those other kids got kidnapped." He rolled his head away from Izuku, but even so he still caught the beginnings of a scowl on the man's face. "But you've done _nothing_. Even now. You just act complacent and go along with it all. You don't even speak up."

The cold accusation felt like it crashed right into Izuku, the weight of it crushing him even as a voice in the back of his head screamed that he was _wrong_. "It's not that simple," he whispered, voice sounding broken even to his own ears. "Tomura doesn't... If I say I don't like something, or it's wrong, h-he'll be just as likely to k-_kill_ them b-because no one's supposed to know about me. He's just so _protective_, and he doesn't really always think too much before doing stuff, you j-just don't get it."

"Is that why you don't even try calling someone?" Aizawa muttered darkly, and Izuku flinched.

"It's too dangerous... The only number I can find are the police, and they might not take me seriously because I'm a kid, or they might just send someone to look before reporting it, and then..." He trailed off and shook his head before continuing, "And even if I managed to somehow contact heroes, and they _believed_ me and _trusted_ me, they won't... Th-they don't know what they'd be getting into..."

"That's not your place to decide."

"But they _don't_!" Izuku protested, shaking his head more vigorously. "If they come here, they'll get themselves killed or worse! I know _I'm_ safe because Tomura won't let anyone hurt me, but everyone else is fair game! And if the rescue fails, we'll just move bases again, and Tomura will probably order everyone to kill all the prisoners to get rid of loose ends! I can't risk Kacchan and Hijack and you and all those heroes' lives!"

"It's still not your call to make," Aizawa replied gruffly. "And even then, I know you had the perfect opportunity to leave _before_ all of this happened. You almost did, too, but you changed your mind at the last second."

"But I _couldn't leave then_!" Izuku almost shouted, tears in his eyes. "If I left _then_, Tomura-nii and the rest—they would have come after me for sure! They were so _close_, and I didn't notice until the last second! And that guy—h-he couldn't escape if he took me with him, and he wasn't strong enough to fight them off! He could barely get away on his own! It was too dangerous!"

Aizawa gave a derisive snort. "Convenient, kid," he drawled. "I suppose you _also_ couldn't just try to arrange a meeting in a safe, neutral location later when the Alliance wasn't suspicious about intruders. Or give him some way to contact you later, or mention where the other bases were."

"Th-that's..." Izuku couldn't even respond to that, heart pounding in his ears as he stared at the captive hero in mute shock. His mouth felt dry, his head buzzing with anxiety. Aizawa finally turned over to look at Izuku again, dark eyes boring into the teenager with icy cold apathy.

"If you _really_ thought this was wrong, if you _really_ wanted out, you had the perfect opening to do _something_," he said lowly. "You had the opening to give someone information with minimal risk of the Alliance finding out, or to at _least_ arrange your own escape at a later date. But you didn't. You did _absolutely nothing_. I don't know how old you are, or if you were born into this or what, but you clearly have enough of a conscience to understand this is all wrong. And because of that, your continued inaction makes you a willing accomplice. It's clear have no desire to stop them, or even _try_ to leave."

The last words made Izuku's breath hitch, his mind momentarily going blank. An accomplice? No desire to stop them? To _leave?_

In the span of a second his mindset completely shifted. Gone was the anxiety, apprehension and guilt that had been steadily building under Aizawa's endless stream of rebukes. _Rage_ filled him as the tears continued to fall, face screwing with anger and nearly shooting to his feet.

"Then where would I _go_?" he roared, meeting Aizawa's icy glower with a furious snarl of his own. "The heroes will treat me as suspicious and probably want to lock me up as an accomplice! Or maybe they'll throw me in foster care because I'm supposed to be a _useless, Quirkless Deku_, it wouldn't be the first time the Hero Commission ignored _everything else_ about a Quirkless orphan's background and just write them off as completely unimportant and not even worth a glance! Or _maybe_ they'll try to throw me into some stupid—stupid _brainwashing program_, to make me into a perfect weapon and slap the 'hero' label on me!"

"Those are ridiculous accusations bordering on conspiracy theories," Aizawa countered flatly, looking perfectly indifferent in the face of Izuku's furious rant. That lack of reaction—that flat, apathetic expression—just made Izuku even angrier.

"_But they already do that!_" he exploded. "They did it to Hawks, and with underground heroes like Lady of the Night and who _knows_ who else! You don't know half the stuff they get up to behind the scenes, _I_ don't know either, but it's only gotten _worse_ since All Might fought All For One! And at least here, I'm _safe_! And the _world_ is safe! Because _who would believe that_—"

White.

White suddenly filled Izuku's vision, and his mind with a high-pitched hum like an old television monitor turning on. The world felt silent and empty, his mind blank, all senses overcome by whiteness and that singular hum.

_What... what happened?_ Izuku felt fuzzy, like he wasn't fully there. Nothing existed, not the world or color or gravity or even time, nothing but himself, and even that felt oddly light and uncertain. Not solid, not really. _What's going on? What's wrong?_

A single line cut through the center of the whiteness, a horizontal split dividing it in half, and then the white began to dim. Distantly, he gradually became aware of a pressure on his shoulder, a muffled sound slowly becoming clear over the fading hum. It felt almost like another hum at first, but not as high pitched. Lower, and more inconsistent than the singular note filling his mind. Like... a voice. Talking.

"...ri...dori...id...ook...me...bre...focus..."

A pang of familiarity filled him at the deep tone. "_Sen...sei...?_" he mouthed, but couldn't hear himself, couldn't tell if he said it or just thought it. He raised his head blearily (when had it fallen?) as his vision continued to slowly shift, the blinding whiteness dimming and giving way to the dark colors of reality. As everything came more and more into focus he could make out the familiar shapes of Aizawa's face, so much closer than it had been before. _Before? Before what?_

"...doriya," he was saying. "Focus on me, and... shit, this isn't a panic..." His voice lowered to a dark murmur for a moment, too quiet for Izuku to hear over the still-fading hum. Izuku just blinked blearily, staring up at his teacher as he waited for everything to come back into focus, for the world to become real again, for his mind to make _sense_ again.

Touch came back first. His palms were on the cold floor supporting his weight, his knees only shielded from the cold cement by the fabric of his pants. He'd been standing before, hadn't he? _Had_ he been standing? Had he fallen down? Why and when? He didn't know, so he stopped thinking about it, focused on the other things he could feel.

The pressure on his shoulder... It was Aizawa's hand, wasn't it? It had to be, with him so close. But the grip didn't feel as tight as it usually did, he couldn't feel Aizawa's fingers digging through the fabric of his shirt like the other times Aizawa held his shoulder. It felt weirdly _soft_ and almost limp, too light. Of course he couldn't feel the individual fingers, the mittens got in the way of his grip.

"Mit...tens...?" he mumbled, gaze trailing to Aizawa's other hand which rested on the ground. The hand Aizawa used to help prop himself up, torso half-lifted off the ground and broken leg awkwardly stretched and angled to the side. Izuku's eyes lingered on the splint. Right... Shigaraki broke his leg, to help keep him from escaping along with the collar. The chain on the collar was half-buried under Aizawa, the links clearly stretched out to their limit with how taut they looked.

Aizawa had dragged himself nearly to the chain's limit to get closer to Izuku. Even though they'd just been arguing about something, even though he was supposed to keep a distance, even though he had a _broken leg_, the man had come to check on Izuku. Izuku slowly looked back to his teacher's face to see his features screwed up with concern. Concern, and wariness.

"Kid, what the hell just happened?" he asked, and Izuku could tell he was trying to be gentle, even if it came out gruff and almost, _almost_ accusatory. He knew his teacher well enough to recognize the note of worry hidden under his harsh exterior, the faintest trace of panic, even if this wasn't _his_ teacher.

"I..." Izuku trailed off, because he didn't know. Something felt wrong, so wrong, and he didn't know _what_.

"Midoriya?" Aizawa pressed gently, and Izuku felt a sudden pang of homesickness, of yearning and wistfulness for _his_ Aizawa, _his_ teacher. Not this—this...

"I need to go," he croaked. He pulled away from Aizawa abruptly and scrambled to his feet to rush to the door. Given what just happened (what _had_ happened?) he half-expected to stagger and stumble over his feet but his steps were steady, a fact he only realized once he was in the hallway and had shut the door behind him.

For a moment he just stood there, slumped against the door with hands pressed against his face and eyes squeezed shut. _What was wrong with him?_ He exhaled a slow, shaky breath and lowered his hand, blinking blearily as he looked down the hallway.

_...Which way was his room?_

A thread of panic tightened around his heart as he stared down either direction of the hallway. The hallway, which he'd visited nearly every day for the past week, suddenly felt unfamiliar and almost alien. The doors seemed to stretch endlessly in each direction, and he didn't know which way led _out_. Only when his eyes locked on the door with the biohazard sign leading to Aiko's basement lab did the abrupt sense of disorientation fade, but only slightly.

He turned and began making his way down the hall slowly, cautiously, and felt a shred of relief when the hallway with Shinsou's cell came into sight. The relief only lasted a moment though, because he realized this hallway still felt oddly _less_ familiar now. But it wasn't as alien as the one with Aizawa's cell, and he swallowed harshly as he stared forward.

Something was wrong. Something was very, _very_ wrong. "Seiko?" he called out quietly, weakly, _pleading_ for her to appear for once since he'd first met her. To guide him, to help him get back because he suddenly didn't trust himself to find his way back to his room.

But she didn't appear. The hallway remained silent and empty, not so much as a shadow flickering under the steady fluorescent lights. After several long moments Izuku exhaled a shaky breath before he began to pick his way forward, unusually slow and cautious, determined to get to his bedroom.

Every step filled him with trepidation. Corners had never been so terrifying, each one filling him with a moment of hesitation. _Was this the right way?_ he wondered every time without fail. And then, _What if someone's around the corner?_ The idea of seeing Shigaraki or any of the other villains made his heart _coil_ with terror and anxiety, his breath catching and muscles locking up for a split second as his throat seized with panic each time.

He was halfway there—_hopefully_ halfway there—when the shadows shifted beside him and he jumped, barely smothering a yelp. Seiko appeared out of no where like always, face blank and expressionless as she looked at him. A chill ran down his spine as he froze under that eerie and blank inverted stare, the visceral sense of _wrong_ flooding his every sense, every _thought_, more powerfully than ever before.

"Do you recognize me, Midoriya Izuku?" she asked, monotonous as ever. Izuku stared at her dumbly, wondering why she would be asking.

"S-Seiko...?" he whispered, feeling tears prick his eyes. Her head tilted slightly at his response, and it was so _smooth_ and automatic.

"So you do recognize me, then?" she questioned idly, and he shuddered.

"H-how could I forget you?" he muttered miserably. How could _anyone_ forget someone as off and unsettling as Seiko?

She didn't respond right away, just stared at him silently for a moment and making his skin prickle with unease. Those eyes were so _empty_, so impossible to read. He'd never seen eyes like that, these felt like voids. Did they even reflect any light? The blackness of her sclera was unbroken, and the white of her irises wouldn't really obviously reflect light... maybe?

"Follow me." He startled at her command, but she had already turned and begun walking, leaving Izuku to scramble after her. He felt a rush of déjà vu, reminded of that horrible first day here when he woke up and nothing made sense, when everything was unfamiliar and wrong. Of those early days where each morning brought new anxieties about what _else_ could go wrong, what new horrific truth he might uncover about this world and feeling more out of place than he ever realized possible.

But this time, the maze-like halls were still somewhat familiar. The turns they made felt just _slightly_ more ingrained than before, not nearly as confusing and daunting as that first day. He could easily recognize that Seiko was leading him to his bedroom, could even tell that she took a slightly different route than he usually did. _Probably to avoid someone,_ he thought distantly, just a little hysteric at the thought.

When they finally reached the familiar hallway and walked through the most familiar door of all, he crossed the room and collapsed right onto the bed. He could hear the door quietly close, probably by Seiko who'd probably also followed him inside, but he didn't care. He just buried his face in the blankets for a few seconds, deeply inhaling the scent before finally lifting his face.

The posters felt so familiar, but also _not_. Several of the heroes staring back at him were completely unfamiliar, only having vague and hazy recollections of their entries in this world's notebooks. Even some of the heroes he did know, some of the posters felt wrong, little details about their costumes just off from what he knew.

He shivered and tore his gaze away, focusing on the ones he _did_ recognize, the posters familiar from his own world. The limited edition "Put Your Hands Up! Radio" poster his mom bought on a whim before Izuku even listened to the show because she knew he'd become a fan. The fan-made one of Yoroi Musha stylized to look like posters for old samurai films his dad found in America. The Storm Chasers one identical to the one from their living room just without the autographs. The Gang Orca one his mom picked up from the aquarium when he gave a lecture on marine life.

It felt like they anchored him in a world that was suddenly so uncertain and unsteady, grounding him back in reality just a little bit. Each one had a memory and story behind how he got them. A specific history that he felt like still existed and applied to this world even when so much else had changed.

Izuku inhaled shakily as he pulled his knees to his chest, trying to calm himself. Seiko stood in the corner of his vision like a dark shadow, her presence making his skin crawl, yet at the same time filling him with questionable relief that he wasn't alone right now. He might not know her, and she might set off his instincts in the worst way possible, but the idea of being entirely alone right now filled him with just as much dread.

"What's wrong with me?" he whispered.

"I don't know," Seiko responded, monotonous as ever. "You should rest for now." Izuku just nodded slowly, having no better ideas. It was still early, barely even seven thirty, but he just felt so _off_ and disoriented. Leaving his room for any reason right now filled him with a surge of terror and anxiety for some reason, so at the very least he'd probably stay here for the rest of the night anyway.

He curled up on the bed as Seiko vanished into the shadows, trying to calm his erratic thoughts. What was wrong with him?

* * *

**No question for next time, except for the one Izuku asked.**


	57. Chapter 57: Things to Think About

Chapter 57

.::Things to Think About::.

By principle, Anjou Ran could not function in the morning without at least one cup of coffee with three squirts of honey.

That was not an exaggeration or hyperbole to emphasize she was not a morning person. For years now, she legitimately _could not function_ until she had either been awake for two hours, or she had a mix of caffeine and honey in her system. Kuroe had been the one to figure that out. Apparently it was a passive thing inherited from their mother, whose Quirk used that weird mix of caffeine and honey as an energy source. Something about a family member with a bee Quirk or something. Ran didn't know the full details, they rarely talked about their biological family.

Today she didn't need it though, because she hadn't actually slept last night. A fact Kirishima probably picked up when he came into the kitchen to find her sitting at the table with a long-empty cereal bowl. He stopped in the doorway and just stared at her, Ran meeting his gaze silently.

"Rough night?" he finally asked.

"Yep," she said flatly. "You too?" She glanced at the bags under his eyes, a rare sight on the teen. Kirishima could be gloomy and quiet at times, especially back when his hair was still black, but he still had a certain _energy_ and never exactly looked tired.

"Yeah," he muttered, and made his way to the pantry to grab a box of cereal and a bowl before joining her at the table. For a while neither of them spoke, Ran just staring blankly at her own empty bowl while Kirishima ate in silence.

The fact Kirishima was the first one into the kitchen was mildly surprising, but then, Ashido wasn't exactly a morning person either. She'd probably be dead to the world for at _least_ another hour. Todoroki meanwhile had woken up about half an hour ago, but hadn't left the guest room. Ran's mental map had tracked him pacing around the room for a while now. When she focused on the link she felt a twinge in her muscles that meant he was probably doing some stretches, or whatever hero students did first thing in the morning.

The last thought had her snorting softly, getting a curious look from Kirishima. "Anjou?"

"Sorry, just thinking how crazy this all is," she said, shaking her head. She got up to take her bowl to the sink and get herself that cup of coffee after all, if only to give herself something to do.

"I hear that," Kirishima said faintly, and she hummed in soft agreement, staring at the coffee pot as it filled up.

This was beyond her paygrade. Ran had accepted that when Ashido first told them about the multiverse. The only reason she'd gotten involved was because Shouji had met that guy who gave him that weird dream, and Todoroki also claimed to be from another world. She _had_ to confirm the veracity of their stories, to at least make sure this wouldn't endanger the runaway network somehow. Even the runaways had agreed—even _Nakamura_, who usually advocated for staying out of stuff like this.

But she hadn't expected that it would get them a direct line to the _Villain Alliance_, and obviously Kirishima didn't either.

He probably _still_ didn't get how big this was, since he was a perfectly normal civilian. Ran herself knew very little about them overall; she mainly knew about them because she kept a closer eye on the villain scene than most. As the coordinator for a bunch of runaways (and a few vigilantes), it was important to keep track of the biggest potential threats, even if Odawara was somehow safe.

Those guys weren't household names yet, but they were well on their way to that level since their public debut. As far as debuts went, it honestly wasn't too different from the average villainous act. They didn't attack Endeavor or anything else major like that, and the main reason they got so much attention had been the fact that one of them made an entire building turn to dust. Destructive Quirks were a dime a dozen, but even then that one stood out.

What caught Ran's attention though was how _organized_ the attack had been. It hadn't been haphazard or spur of the moment, it had involved multiple people with radically different skills. They even destroyed all the cameras in the area of the attack in advance, a pattern that would largely remain in subsequent attacks to make it hard to get actual footage of them. There was something up with that group that gave her a sense of foreboding, and that call with Midoriya had just made it _worse_.

"Hey, Anjou?" Kirishima said, cutting into her thoughts. "What... What are you going to do?"

"About the mess?" Ran asked, glancing back at him, and he nodded.

"Yeah. It's just... A lot, you know?" She hummed and turned back to the coffee.

"You can back out. It's a bit too late for you to go _back_ at this point, but you don't have to get involved with this. You can just join the runways."

"But you won't, will you?" Kirishima asked, and she gave a half-hearted shrug.

"Not really. I've got to go back to Kamino for school so I can't do much right now, but my Quirk lets me help out even from a distance." Ideally, Ran would like to meet _every single one of these idiots_ and tag them with her Quirk, but that wasn't an option. She _had_ to go back to Kamino today or the police investigating Ashido and Kirishima's disappearance might get suspicious. The mess already had at _least_ two Pro Heroes involved—Oracle and that Midnight lady Ashido mentioned—and she wouldn't put it past one of them to check out Kuroe and Odawara as a whole if she ran late.

They were silent for a while after that, both out of things to say. Eventually the coffeemaker beeped loudly to announce it finished, and she swept up the pot and poured it into a mug before grabbing some honey from the fridge. She half-expected a comment from Kirishima when she drizzled in a few drops—Ashido and Kirameki both did that—but surprisingly he remained silent. When she turned around, she realized it was probably because he hadn't seen it, staring at his bowl with an odd intensity.

"Yen for your thoughts?" she asked lightly as she took a sip.

"You have an easy out, but you're still staying involved," Kirishima muttered. "I... This is all _way_ over my head and I have trouble understanding everything sometimes, but... I also don't want to do nothing after coming this far. Is that weird?" Ran couldn't help her snort, earning a hurt look from the redhead. "H-hey, don't laugh! I'm being serious here!"

"Sorry, it's not that," she said, shaking her head. "It's just, when Ashido first said you were at UA in her world, I kinda thought it was crazy. No offense, but you don't exactly seem like the 'heroic' type, y'know?"

Even before they really started interacting these past couple of weeks, she'd pegged Kirishima as the nervous type with barely any confidence in himself. He was almost always alone at school, that shy kid no one really spoke to. Whenever voices started raising, he'd often freeze up or look over at the arguing people before quickly fleeing with a guilty look on his face. He had to be one of the least confrontational people she'd ever met.

Even now he winced and ducked his head. "Gee, thanks," he muttered grumpily, and she smirked.

"Yeah, well, that was before. But I can see it now." The remark had his head snapping up in surprise, and Ran sat at the table across from him. "Running out after Ashido when she went after that villain, and then running away with her _because_ you don't really trust me—that takes guts. And even now, we're talking about maybe going up against actual villains, and you're still talking about wanting to do _something_."

"Honestly, I'm kinda trying not to think too hard on the villain part," Kirishima said with a wince, and she nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that's a lot to take in. Kinda trying to avoid it too," she admitted with an uncomfortable shrug. "But still, you said it yourself: you don't want to do 'nothing.' Can't say the same for most people. You're a pretty cool guy, Kirishima."

Kirishima seemed surprised by the last part and at a loss for words. He didn't really have a chance to respond though. While she waited Kuroe's signature moved on her mental map, signaling he _finally_ decided to get out of bed after waking up and spending the last ten minutes on his phone or whatever. Ran huffed and rolled her eyes. "Kuroe's incoming. Conversation ends now."

Kirishima frowned and quickly nodded, and the two lapsed into silence once more. Ran sipped at her coffee and let her thoughts wander to the rest of the day. She had a long day ahead of her even without that follow-up phone call. The runaways were going to expect some kind of report after the second call, and she grimaced as she thought of their reactions.

_Screw it._ She'd text Nakamura to meet up and leave it up to him. She might be the coordinator, but she did _not_ want to deal with this shit. In the meantime, maybe she _could_ find a way to stay tomorrow...

* * *

Izuku had hoped a full night's sleep would make everything better, and it did help a little bit because his head no longer felt so jumbled. But despite that, everything still felt _off_. Waking up and looking at the bedroom filled him with the strongest sense of déjà vu rather than _actual_ familiarity, and the hallways were little better.

_What's going on?_ he wondered in frustration as he headed back to his room with a bowl and a box of cereal. He hadn't run into anyone on his way to the kitchen, which was good because he kept second-guessing himself on the way. It wasn't as bad as last night now that his head was clearer, but it still left him anxious enough that he'd had to return and consult the map in that one journal to quickly refresh his memory of this place's layout.

It wasn't that he suddenly couldn't remember the place. Everything still felt familiar, but... not _as_ familiar, if that made sense. He hadn't realized just how used he'd gotten to the building's maze-like layout. Without the immediate disorientation from last night, the strangeness of the situation really hit home.

That, and what he'd said to Aizawa-sensei.

Last night he hadn't really been thinking about his responses when he'd said them, it had all been almost automatic in the heat of the moment. So he hadn't really noticed just _what_ he'd said until he started thinking about it this morning, and once he did, he realized it was weird. Everything he'd said made no sense to him _now_, but he was obviously responding to Aizawa-sensei's statements and accusations.

Including about an opportunity to leave.

Izuku closed the door to his bedroom and went straight to the dresser, setting down the bowl and cereal box to pick up the letter about his episodes. He slid the papers out of the envelope and skimmed over them. If he remembered right, there was something near the end right around... _There._

'_Actually, during the last episode I had, a new hero infiltrated one of our other bases and tried to get us to leave with him. Kurogiri stopped him before we left and the hero got away, but it was a close call. That's the other reason I decided to write this, I guess, to prevent a repeat of that._'

A frown grew as he read over the paragraph. He couldn't be _sure_ of course, but that sounded close enough to what Aizawa-sensei had been referencing about "the opportunity he'd wasted." A hero had infiltrated the base, and Izuku had nearly left with them mid-episode. His own responses to Aizawa last night were a bit hazy now, and the reasoning behind them didn't come to mind at all, but he felt _certain_ he'd been referencing that particular event.

_If I was, it sounds like maybe the 'episode' wore off right before we left? Kurogiri was there too apparently, but I feel like the way I phrased it was like I realized running away wouldn't work. And Aizawa-sensei said nothing about Kurogiri, but he might not have been told the full details, or the new hero might not have seen Kurogiri...? But if I really was talking about that event, how did I know that? I haven't seen any mentions of it anywhere, or heard about it..._

As he mulled over it, it took him far too long to notice Seiko had appeared at some point. Once he did notice he jumped with a small shriek and dropped the letter. "H-how long have you been there!?" he sputtered.

"A while." That was not helpful at all. Izuku just heaved an anxious sigh as he bent down to pick up the papers, trying not to look at her. Just like last night, she felt way more viscerally wrong than she usually did, which was saying something. "Did sleeping help?"

Izuku grimaced. "Kinda, but... Stuff still feels off." He sighed and shook his head while he folded the letter to put it back into the envelope. "My head's clearer and I don't feel as disoriented, but now everything just feels kind of... _wrong_, I guess? I don't know. I think I need some time alone to just think things over." He swallowed, and risked a glance her way. "Can you tell the others something so they don't worry?"

Seiko gave a short hum, tipping her head to the side. "Very well. What about Eraserhead?" The last question had Izuku freezing, a short chill running down his spine as he quickly averted his gaze.

He knew he couldn't just ignore or avoid Aizawa, it had been in the back of his mind all morning. The man needed breakfast after all. But right now, Izuku couldn't face him, not after last night. Aizawa would surely have questions about what happened at the end, questions Izuku couldn't answer right now because he was just as confused. But even before that, things had already been so _tense_, and the thought of facing him filled him with an odd mix of shame and dread.

But worse were _those words_.

"_Fighting them would be suicidal for a Pro Hero, let alone a teenage kid with no training or even a Quirk._"

Even now Izuku flinched as he remembered them, teeth digging into his lip as he ducked his head further. He knew he wasn't Quirkless anymore, and that Aizawa hadn't been outright saying a person's Quirk was tied to their value as a person. He'd just been pointing out that he couldn't go reasonably against trained supervillains. It shouldn't bother him so much, he _knew_ that, but even so. To hear his teacher speak like that...

It left him with a miserable sense of shame and despair, and made him want to avoid the man if only for a little longer.

_I'm sorry, Aizawa-sensei,_ he silently apologized as he took a deep breath. "Could... could you maybe, g-get him breakfast?" he asked quietly, voice carrying the slightest tremor. "I'll bring him dinner for sure, a-and maybe lunch, too, but... I don't think I can talk to him right now..."

He hung his head shamefully, and almost flinched when Seiko responded with a simple, "Fine." And just like that she was gone, leaving Izuku with only his shame at subjecting Aizawa to the horror that was Seiko. But he had no choice. He couldn't ask any of the villains to do it without raising questions about it, and more than that, he couldn't trust any of them.

Seiko might be the creepiest person he'd ever met, but he at least felt sure she wouldn't hurt Aizawa. He couldn't say the same of anyone else.

For now, he pushed it out of his mind and focused on the _other_ things he'd said last night. Specifically, the things right before... whatever that was. Aizawa had been pushing him about his reasons for not trying to call for help, and Izuku's responses had been weird. The stuff about police not believing him were a decent enough reason, but the rest of it? The stuff with the Hero Commission and Hawks? Also, Lady of the Night? Who was that again? The name felt familiar, maybe she was an underground hero?

Izuku had no idea where any of it came from, but back when he'd said all that, it felt _right_. It reminded him of when he'd talked about his Quirk to Bakugou and Shinsou that day when Shigaraki kidnapped Aizawa-sensei, and how he felt like he'd used it before and broken bones in _this_ body. He had no basis for it, no conscious memories, but his words had felt right back then. His words last night had felt just as undeniably accurate at the time, even if his recollection felt a bit fuzzier now.

And that made the last thing he said before everything went white all the more worrisome. He couldn't remember it _exactly_, but it went something like, "_Here I'm _safe_! And the _world_ is safe too! Because who would believe—_" And that was when everything went white and he cut off.

Two things stood out: Izuku was safe, and the _world_ was safe. And _both felt true._

"What would that mean?" he mumbled to himself. "Is me being safe somehow tied to the _world_ being safe...? And what was that last part about believing _something_..." He didn't know, and thinking on it too hard made his head start to feel... _fuzzy._

When Izuku realized that he immediately banished the thoughts with a harsh shake of his head. He didn't know if that was a symptom or warning sign or just something else, but if there was even the _slightest_ chance it might somehow trigger another white-out, it'd be better not to think about it. He was still reeling from the last one, he didn't need another one stacked on top of it.

For now he walked over to his laptop and opened it up, navigating to FacePage. Before ending the call yesterday everyone had agreed to set up a group chat on there, with the others even making new accounts just for that purpose. He didn't know if the others might still be asleep—their conversation yesterday might have kept them up pretty late—but he could send them a message outlining everything from last night.

Izuku wished he could just tell them over the phone and get their thoughts in real time, but that wasn't an option. Yesterday they'd all concluded he'd have to sit out today's call since leaving the Alliance's base two days in a row after just securing increased freedoms for Bakugou and Shinsou, as well as tutoring with Aizawa, _might_ be suspicious. Uraraka had been tagged as the official go-between, and had promised to keep him updated on the developing plans.

It had been frustrating at the time, but now Izuku felt slightly grateful since he didn't want to talk to anyone. His mind was mostly clear now, but it was still just the slightest bit fuzzy, the slightest bit _wrong_. Asking Kurogiri to warp him anywhere felt terrifying, and he had no idea how he'd react to Aiko. Based on their interactions so far, he had a feeling she'd be less willing to leave him alone with Uraraka if she noticed something clearly wrong with him.

While he still wished he could talk to them directly, he felt relieved knowing that they'd all see this message and could talk it out later. Just knowing there were others here who could relate was an immense weight off his shoulders. After triple-checking that he'd covered everything, he finally hit send and closed the laptop, turning his attention to his notebook.

Might as well get back to work on that letter to Kacchan and Shinsou about the help. Hopefully he'd come up with _something_...

* * *

Meanwhile, Himiko was bouncing down the hall to the kitchen when Seiko appeared. "Morning, Seiko-chan!" she chirped cheerily. "What's going on?"

"Izuku is feeling unwell and cannot deliver breakfast to Eraserhead," she intoned dully, and Himiko perked up with an excited gasp.

"Oh! Oh! I'll take it to him! Pick me, pick me!" Seiko just nodded and returned to the shadows while Himiko all but raced to the kitchen, excitement reaching fever pitches. She hadn't gotten to meet Eraserhead yet, Giri had sent her back through a different portal with a bunch of others before they kidnapped the hero. And now that Aiko was coming to meet him, she was _really_ curious about him. This would be so much _fun_!

* * *

Kyouka had been browsing the morning news on her phone when it dinged with new messages in the group chat. She switched over to the messenger and frowned as she read Midoriya's messages, growing more and more alert. "The hell?" she muttered, sitting up straighter. Lips thinning, she typed in a short reply.

'_Well that's definitely weird._' She heard a light chime from Kaminari's phone in the back of the apartment, followed by a soft groan.

"Stooooop," the sleepy teen groaned, and she rolled her eyes. Last night Kaminari had still been up when she went to sleep, which had been around one in the morning. It was now nine, so he obviously hadn't gotten much sleep. She couldn't really blame him though. The phone call yesterday had given them a _lot_ to think about.

Midoriya was here, and stuck with the League of Villains—or as they were called in this world, the Villain Alliance. Somehow every time he told them more about it, it got worse. Bakugou was there as a prisoner, and so was a kid from Gen Ed. If that wasn't bad enough, just this week _Aizawa_ was captured and given to him as a pet or something equally sick and screwed up.

And that was just the stuff he and Uraraka had told them. There seemed to be more stuff they didn't want to share over the phone, which was understandable since phones could be easily hacked. It didn't make it less aggravating though.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing was that _all_ of the others had some story they couldn't share. Midoriya and Uraraka had some obvious secrets, but so did Todoroki, Ashido, and that Anjou chick. Whatever was going on in Odawara seemed to be pretty big, and she couldn't figure out what it could be. Judging by the fact Asui, Kouda, Shouji and Ojiro weren't on Anjou's list of people whose statuses they didn't know, she figured they might be there, but that's all Kyouka had at this point.

Which brought her to one of the other people whose statuses they couldn't confirm: Tokoyami.

She'd been reading articles about Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow when Midoriya's message came in. The possibility Tokoyami might be from their world hadn't been something Kyouka would have thought, but Anjou's reasoning felt pretty solid. And Kyouka and Kaminari were the only members of 1-A who had _any_ sort of public presence. Since he worked with Gentle Criminal, it'd make sense to come to Hosu and pull a few heists in hopes they'd run into each other in case he couldn't find them.

It would_ also _make sense to just, you know, send them a message over social media. That was the main thing giving her pause. That'd be the simplest way to find them, but maybe it just never occurred to him. While he didn't avoid social media like Todoroki, from what she knew he didn't use it that regularly either. Waking up as the sidekick to a famous criminal might have disoriented him enough to skew his judgment.

The only way to know for sure would be to meet him. Kyouka had spent a good chunk of the night studying Gentle Criminal's patterns to see if she could figure out the next night. Investigation and analysis weren't her usual areas of expertise, but after yesterday's call she felt like she needed to do _something_ productive. She couldn't really do anything about Midoriya's situation, so this was all she had.

Her conclusions so far: he always targeted some major company or corporation, and pulled off a "silly" heist before exposing some secrets in a video a few days later. Usually, the companies or one of its top executives had made the news within the past two years for some rumored scandal. Even if they hadn't made news, almost all of them at least had _some_ sort of rumor mentioned in articles about the heist and reveal.

This morning the reveal video for their latest heist got posted, which had been part of what spurred her news crawl. Odd choice to publish it on a Sunday morning, but maybe he was counting on it being a slow news period to maximize coverage. Not much happened on Sundays, so short of some _other_ dramatic and sudden event, there probably wouldn't be any competing news stories.

Based on previous patterns, Kyouka figured they'd probably do another heist the week after next. That was entirely too long for her liking. If someone else was here, she wanted to know _now_ so they could make their plans accordingly. They'd probably want to scope out the next target in advance, and that seemed like their best chance to make a move. Tokoyami probably wouldn't bother to disguise himself since no one knew him. Just figure out their likely targets, and keep an eye on those.

That, and increase their patrols and vigilante activity. If Tokoyami _was_ from their world, he'd be looking for them too. So in the end, they might not even have to do anything different from usual.

The last thought had her snorting and rolling her eyes. "This is so insane," she muttered under her breath. A chime from her phone (and Kaminari's) had her pausing and Kaminari groaning loudly. She quickly checked FacePage again to find a new message from Anjou.

'_Should probably push up phone call to talk this out. Any objections?_' Even as Kyouka read it another message appeared from Uraraka.

'_None here! I'm good for anytime!_' There was a chime with it and another groan from Kaminari, and Kyouka smirked as she typed her own reply.

'_Give us an hour. Jammingwhey needs time to wake up_'

Another chime, only from Kaminari's phone this time, and the loudest groan yet. "Make it _stooooop_," he moaned, and she quietly snickered. She'd give him five more minutes before she dumped a cup of water on his head. She had a _lot_ of stuff she wanted to talk about on this call. Midoriya's message had made something click, and she wanted their input.

* * *

**So a BIG warning for anime-only fans: the latest chapter ended with a severe cliffhanger. Final page had a pretty major character hurt. We don't know how bad the injury is, but I've already seen at least one fic about it that had a sentence in the description along the lines of "if (character) died in the latest chapter". There's going to be a LOT of vent fics and fan art over the next week, and maybe beyond depending on how the next chapter goes.**

**So if you want to avoid spoilers, I recommend avoiding any brand new fan fics for at least the next week. Hopefully the next chapter will prove our worst fears wrong and the initial clamor will die down. Until then though... That cliffhanger was designed to create a LOT of tension/anticipation in readers, and it's definitely working.**

**Question for next time: If any character besides Izuku were to have a Quirkless counterpart in this world, who would have the most drastic ramifications?**


	58. Chapter 58: Memory Games

Chapter 58

.::Memory Games::.

Himiko had a definite bounce to her step as she made her way to the hall with Eraserhead's cell. She carried a sandwich courtesy of some guy whose name she could never remember but who had Kurogiri's approval to cook, perfect for a guy with mittens. Or so she'd been told. She hadn't actually _seen_ Eraserhead since he got kidnapped, everyone had been ordered to stay away from his cell.

Honestly, she hadn't really cared that much about Eraserhead. Sure, Mido-kun talked about him sometimes, but he talked about a bunch of heroes. She never saw him back at that other place, and from what Magne and Twice said he sounded like a crusty old man, not the kind of person she was interested in.

But now Aiko was coming, and Himiko was _curious_. She knew Aiko had some sort of history with the man, and those yellow goggles she sometimes wore belonged to him. But she didn't know the details or full story behind it, and whenever she asked Aiko just gave her a coy smile and simply said, "_He's fun._" So yes, Himiko was very curious, and was eager to jump on the opportunity to meet the man to try to understand.

So it was with a bright smile that she rapped on the door to his cell three times in quick succession before pushing it open and skipping inside. "Good morning, Eraserhead-san!" she greeted cheerfully. The captive hero seemed to have been woken up by her entrance, jerking into awareness with a startled gasp.

"Wh-what—" He stopped short as his head twisted towards her, blinking at her with wide, bloodshot eyes. Himiko just grinned as she bounced over to him and dropped into a crouch. This close she could see the heavy bags under his eyes, and the still present bruises around his neck from when Tomu had some people change up his restraints.

"Aww, those bags don't look good at all," she commented, setting down the plate. "Did you have a bad night too?" Eraserhead didn't respond right away, just stared at her blearily. His eyes darted to the plate for the briefest of seconds before returning to her, still wide and rimmed with red.

"Who are you?" he asked roughly. "Where's Midoriya?"

Himiko perked up at the questions. "I'm Toga! Toga Himiko! I'm Mido-chan's friend!" She beamed at him, lips pulled back to show off her sharp incisors. "Mido-chan didn't sleep too well either, so I'm bringing you breakfast instead!"

He stiffened at that, eyes growing just the slightest bit wider. He abruptly snapped his head towards the plate and shifted a bit so he could properly sit up, grunting as it jostled his bad leg. Himiko didn't bother helping, rising from her crouch to skip a few steps back to give him space before plopping back onto the floor. The hero didn't look at her, movements stiff and jagged as he took the food. While he ate she glanced around the cell curiously, noting the pillows, a plate with a single pill and a half-empty water bottle, and another empty plate.

The last one had her tilting her head, and she crawled over to pick it up. "Hey, Eraserhead-san. Did Mido-chan forget to take your dinner plate last night?" She glanced back at him and wondered aloud, "Did he even stay?" The man went even more tense at the question, visibly gritting his teeth as he hung his head.

"Just let me eat in peace," he muttered before taking a bite of his sandwich, and Himiko hummed in thought. That was so defensive. So they had a fight then, didn't they? How strange! How interesting!

How _bad_.

"You must have _really_ upset Mido-chan if he doesn't want to see you," she commented, and pretended not to notice his flinch as she continued, "He's super nice and friendly to everyone, and never tries to avoid people unless they scare him. And you're totally one of his favorite heroes! So he has to be _really_ upset to stay away and ask someone else to bring you breakfast."

Eraserhead had stopped eating or even moving, head hanging so his bangs hid his eyes from view. He somehow looked even _more_ stiff and rigid, mittened hands gripping the half-eaten sandwich hard enough to leave indents in the bread. Himiko smiled then, leaning forward to pat his shoulder and making him startle and snap his gaze towards her. Their eyes met and she let her smile grow bigger.

"Don't worry though, I won't tell Tomu!" she promised. "As long as you say sorry, Mido-chan will come around eventually, so Tomu doesn't need to know!"

_And then Tomu wouldn't get mad and hurt Eraserhead for upsetting Izuku._ That was the real danger here. If Tomu thought that Eraserhead made Mido-chan sad for some reason, he might not wait for his side of the story before doing something _stupid_. That protective instinct of his could make him do rash stuff that just upset Izuku in the end. Himiko would rather not see that happen again, especially since Aiko-nee liked Eraserhead too.

The implied warning seemed to get his attention, the man cringing before putting down the sandwich on the plate. "I'm not hungry anymore," he intoned dully, head bowed and not looking at her. "You can go now."

He'd only eaten half of it, but Himiko just smiled and bobbed her head as she grabbed the plate, stacking it on top of the one from last night. "Okay! Bye bye, Eraserhead! I'll see you later!" She turned and bounced out of the cell, giving him a cheerful wave before closing the door. The last thing she saw was Eraserhead curling on his side to face away from the door.

* * *

Ochako had been in the middle of breakfast when she checked her phone to find the messages from Deku. Her chewing slowed to a stop as she read it, cheeks still puffed with bacon as she frowned at the recounting of the weird events last night.

"Something up?" Aiko asked across from her, and Ochako quickly swallowed before shaking her head.

"Not really," she said hastily. "Just saw some weird news, is all." Aiko hummed around a mouthful of bacon, but thankfully didn't press for more details. They lapsed into silence once more as Ochako returned to eating, mulling over Deku's message.

The sudden white-out and disorientation was worrying and alarming, as was the stuff he'd apparently said to Aizawa-sensei. Deku had outlined what he could remember of the conversation, complete with a rough transcript. Like he noted, some of it seemed weirdly specific, and also covered stuff he probably _shouldn't_ know. Ochako had no idea what that might mean.

Good thing they weren't alone in this. Anjou suggested they have the call sooner, and Ochako hadn't wasted a moment agreeing. Which was how one hour later she found herself in the warehouse Deku had told her about, sitting on the couch with the phone pressed to her ear. Aiko hadn't asked many questions thankfully, just lent Ochako a coat from her closet and a pink wig for a disguise. Ochako had to admit, _no one_ would look for her with bubblegum pink hair in two giant, bushy pigtails.

After seeing how different she looked, she ended up taking a picture of the disguise and sent it over the chat. Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised that it was the first topic they discussed after the call started. "_That's a wig?_" Ashido sounded genuinely surprised. "_That looks totally real though!_"

"I know, right?" Ochako asked, twirling a strand of the hair around her finger. "It's kinda heavy though... I'm not used to having this much hair, I guess."

"_Wigs can feel weird,_" Todoroki agreed.

"_When did _you_ wear a wig?_" Jirou deadpanned.

"_Kamino,_" he replied, and there was a brief silence as they all processed that.

"_Okay, so I know you guys went to Kamino, and talking about that is kinda, you know, taboo,_" Kaminari said after a few seconds. "_But why did you wear a wig?_"

"_Because they needed disguises, duh!_" Ashido replied for him. "_Come on Kami, how many people have come up to you after the sports festival!?_"

"And UA _was_ kinda all over the news during Kamino," Ochako agreed almost sheepishly, thinking back to the endless news stories about Bakugou's kidnapping. She had to actually cut off all her social media for a while because the clips from her fight with Bakugou at the Sports Festival had been plastered everywhere. It had been too frustrating to go online and see it constantly, especially with all the comments about Bakugou's behavior during it. Everyone seemed to still see her as a victim to his brutal nature, even after Aizawa-sensei called out that pro back then for that very issue.

"_Hold on, did everyone wear wigs?_" Kaminari asked curiously.

"_No. Everyone else just styled their hair differently. Mine's too distinct to do that though, so we grabbed a black one._"

"_How different could they look?_"

"_Well, Kirishima had some fake horns that looked like Mirko's ears, Iida had a mustache and Midoriya had a goatee. I think he was going for a 'gangster' look...?_" That had them all pausing to digest that information.

"_Okay, so for the record, we have zero context so all this makes almost no sense to me and Kirishima._" Ochako startled as Anjou spoke up, having genuinely forgotten she'd be listening too. No doubt she and Kirishima were totally confused since they hadn't really explained _everything_ about Kamino. "_But that said, picturing Kirishima with rabbit ear-horns is weirdly hilarious._"

"_Hey,_" he grumbled.

"_Oh, maybe we can do that again!_" Ashido exclaimed eagerly. "_You already look super-different with red hair! No one would look for you with horns!_"

"_I could help find similar ones,_" Todoroki volunteered helpfully.

"_Okay, so disguises can actually be useful,_" Anjou commented before the discussion could devolve further. "_Maybe you guys can use that stuff to sneak over to Hosu or something so you can all actually meet up in person. But that's not really the point of this call._"

Just like that the mood sobered, the main purpose of the meeting brought up to the forefront of their minds. The idle conversation had been nice and a fun distraction from the constant stress of their situation, but they couldn't put it off forever. There was too much to talk about, and Deku's message was the tip of the iceberg.

"_Okay, so I read those messages Midoriya sent, and I'm... kinda confused?_" Surprisingly Kirishima started it off. "_Like, I kinda get that amnesia thing isn't a thing with him in _your_ world, and it's not _total_ amnesia or anything, but... This kinda sounds like that thing, maybe? Does it normally happen while he's talking to people like that?_" Ochako pursed her lips. She hadn't missed the similarities to Deku's vague description of his "episodes" either.

"_Maybe it's a sign he's about to forget again?_" Todoroki suggested. "_Some Quirk effects have warning symptoms before they happen._"

"_Oh man, Midoriya having one of those things now would be_ bad," Kaminari groaned. "_Really hope that's not what's going on._"

"I don't think it is," Ochako said. "We talked about his 'episodes' a bit when we first met up. We don't know for sure, but apparently this world's Deku usually tries to hide them as a kind of game or test or... _something_, so I don't think it happens when talking to people or has warning signs. But we don't really know much about them other than what that letter said, some stuff in his journals and what he heard from Seiko."

"_Well, maybe he can ask her?_" Ashido suggested. "_You guys said she already thinks he has one, right? So it wouldn't be TOO weird for him to ask!_"

"_But if it's _not_ normal, she might tell someone else,_" Jirou pointed out. "_And the last thing he needs is scrutiny._" Ochako found herself nodding in agreement even if they couldn't see it. Part of her had actually debated asking Aiko about the episodes when she first read his messages, but she had quickly dismissed the thought for those very reasons. They hadn't even decided whether or not to tell Aiko that Ochako knew about the episodes _at all_, since they didn't want Aiko to ask too many questions about their relationship. Frankly, it was kind of a miracle she hadn't asked many questions yet.

"But if it _is_ connected to his episodes, why is it happening now?" she wondered aloud. "And it's not like he's forgotten everything, or anything really. He still has all his memories, he's just disoriented. So is it really connected to that?" There was a brief silence after that, no one having any answers.

"_...Actually, I think it might be,_" Jirou said, surprising her. "_Sorry for the tangent, but there's this thing that's been bugging me. It's kinda small, but I remembered it yesterday while Kaminari was talking about that villain fight, and Midoriya's message this morning kinda reminded me of it...?_" She trailed off and Ochako could almost hear her shrug.

"_Sure, go for it,_" Anjou said when no one else responded. "_Not like we've got any better ideas._"

"_Cool. So like I said, it's nothing big or fancy, but after that villain fight when we got onto the roof, Kaminari somehow knew how to open up the rooftop door to his apartment building._"

The remark had Ochako feeling more confused than anything, especially when Kaminari muttered, "_Oh man, I forgot about that._"

"_So?_" Ashido asked, voicing Ochako's confusion.

"_Ashido, we didn't know that roof was _my_ apartment building,_" Kaminari explained. "_I didn't even know we could _go_ to the roof. And even then, I don't know how I knew how to open it. The door wasn't locked, it was just stuck and needed this one trick to open it up. But..._"

He trailed off, seeming to search for the right words, and Jirou took over. "_He shouldn't have known how to do that. I tried the handle first and just thought it was locked. It never crossed my mind it might just be stuck. He didn't even _try_ to open it normally, either. He just went straight to some weird trick that worked._" There was a brief silence after that, Ochako finally understanding just why it bothered her.

"_...Maybe he remembered how it worked?_" Kirishima finally said.

"_What?_" Kaminari said. "_No, that's impossible, how would I remember it? I'm not from this world!_"

"_Actually, he might be onto something,_" Anjou said, catching Ochako further off-guard. "_Ashido, why did you trust me so much?_"

"_Huh?_" Ashido sounded surprised before saying, "_Well, we're friends, right? We hung out every day after I woke up here and you seemed super cool and dependable!_"

"_Then what's my given name?_" Anjou asked, and Ashido didn't reply right away.

"It's Ran, right?" Ochako said awkwardly after a few seconds of dead silence. "You said it at the start of the call yesterday."

"_Yep._"

"_I totally knew that!_" Ashido said quickly.

"_And when did you learn it?_" Anjou countered, and once more Ashido was silent. "_Kaminari, you seem similar to Ashido. Mind answering a question?_"

Ochako perked up, curiosity piqued as Kaminari replied with faint confusion in his tone. "_Uh, sure, I guess?_"

"_Imagine you had a friend in this dimension. You technically don't know that person, don't even know their full name, but you spend every day with them at school. Finally you tell that friend that you're from another world, and they say they believe you, and might be able to help you. But to do that, they say you'll have to run away and cut off all contact with everyone you know. You don't know where you're going, and you have to ride in a car, _alone_, with a total stranger. You can't even take your phone, you just have a burner they give you. What is your reaction?_"

Kaminari was silent for a moment as he thought it over. "_I'd... be kinda suspicious, I guess,_" he said slowly, before correcting himself, "_Actually, no, I think I'd be _really_ suspicious. I mean, even if we're friends, that all sounds super shady, y'know? I'd probably think that car's actually taking me to a mental hospital or something._"

"_And yet Ashido got in without an ounce of hesitation,_" Anjou remarked. "_She didn't even stop when she could hear people shouting and screaming from the distraction._"

"_That _is_ really weird,_" Jirou muttered. "_That sounds like a massive trap to me._"

"_But, but I _wasn't_ alone!_" Ashido protested. "_Kiri was there too! And Kumiko didn't come with us, but she helped with all the planning so she knew about it too! Kiri, you wouldn't have gone along if you thought it was dangerous, right?_"

"_Actually, I only really went along because you seemed to trust Anjou so much,_" Kirishima said meekly. "_She was kinda freaky when she talked about _why_ she believed you. I mean, she said she ran a background check on Jirou and Ingenium's brother, and even figured out the patrol schedule for Ingenium's agency!_"_ That _had Ochako almost jumping in surprise, some dust flying up from the couch and making her cough.

"_You ran a background check on me?_" Jirou demanded. "_Why, and when?_"

"_A friend of mine asked for reasons,_" Anjou replied. "_I can't say more over the phone, too insecure. All that matters is that it wasn't for anything illegal, and it convinced me to believe Ashido instead of writing her off as crazy._"

"_You know, saying it's not illegal doesn't really help,_" Kirishima muttered.

"Yeah, I don't think 'illegal' means as much here," Ochako mumbled, thinking back to everything she'd seen and experienced since running away.

"_But it's _An-chan_!_" Ashido exploded. "_She's not a bad person, even if she's a FacePage hacker!_"

"..._Yeah, that's another thing,_" Anjou drawled. "_You dropped the whole 'logged into your FacePage to read your messages' thing pretty easily. Most people would be more upset about that._"

Ochako was _definitely_ alert now, even as Ashido protested, "_You were just making sure I wasn't being catfished! I'm still not happy about it, but it came from a good place and that's just how you are._"

"_And that's the thing:_ You don't know that." Ashido fell dead silent as the other girl continued, "_From your viewpoint you honestly shouldn't know me at all, but you trust me as if you do. You were willing to run away, _alone_, without your phone or any way to contact anyone you knew, all because I told you to. You don't put that sort of trust in someone you've only known for two, three weeks tops._"

"_What are you getting at?_" Ashido asked.

"_This is total conjecture, so I could be absolutely wrong. But I think you guys still have some memories of this world stored in your subconscious._" That had them all sucking in sharp breaths.

"_If we do, I haven't noticed anything,_" Kaminari replied tightly.

"Same," Ochako muttered.

"_Me neither,_" Todoroki agreed.

"_Says the guy still hanging onto a cell phone that an apparent _villain_ keeps calling,_" Anjou retorted, and he went silent while Ochako stiffened at the reminder that _Dabi was Todoroki's brother_. She _really_ needed to talk to him about that, but now was not the time.

"_Good, so I'm not the only one who thinks that,_" Jirou said with an obvious sigh of relief. "_Feels less crazy hearing someone else say it._"

"_Wait, what?_" Kaminari yelped. "_You never mentioned it to me!_"

"_It only _really_ occurred to me this morning when I saw Midoriya's message. I was still thinking about the rooftop thing after yesterday. But that's not even the only time that sort of thing happened. When I had to go to the school to take that test, I had to check my phone a couple times after leaving Kaminari's apartment. But after a certain point I didn't need it anymore. I didn't even notice at the time. And after the test, I was able to get back to the school entrance alone without any help._"

Ochako frowned as she listened, gears starting to turn in her head even as others spoke. "_Actually, come to think of it, I figured out how to reach school pretty fast too,_" Kaminari said slowly. "_The other day I cut through this alley as a shortcut, but I'd never used it before. And then we had a PE class in a different building than usual, and I didn't need any help finding the changing rooms there._"

"_Well I haven't noticed anything weird!_" Ashido declared.

"_You got the hang of navigating the school pretty fast,_" Anjou pointed out. "_Even the chemistry class on Fridays after lunch._"

"_Oh yeah, that one's in a totally different part of the building from the rest of our classes,_" Kirishima agreed. "_I remember the first month the teacher always waited five minutes before starting because someone would always be late because they got lost._"

"_...Okay, yeah, it is weird I could find it,_" Ashido agreed.

Ochako had no similar experiences so she couldn't really relate, but she couldn't help frowning as she mulled over it. "I _did_ adjust to life here pretty fast, I guess," she mumbled, "but I don't know if it's because of subconscious memories though. I mean, I mostly just stayed at home or went with dad to construction sites before I ran away. But if this subconscious memory thing is true, what does that mean?"

"_I don't know,_" Anjou replied. "_Could mean the memories are tied more to your bodies. Or this really _is_ a weird and insane conspiracy and everyone had fake memories implanted._" The last part had Ochako's face wrinkling with annoyance, but thankfully Anjou added, "_But at this point, there's too many weirdly specific details so that's somehow the most _insane_ option._" Her voice took on a familiar dry note of "_what even is my life anymore_" that Ochako could fully sympathize with. "_But that said, that transcript Midoriya wrote freaks me out._"

"_What part?_" Todoroki asked curiously.

"_The end, right before... whatever happened. It feels like he must've said something to trigger it, or been _about_ to say something._" Ochako frowned, feeling a creeping sense of discomfort. Honestly, that part stuck out to her too, among other things he'd said. Like his responses to Aizawa about why he wouldn't go to the police. Her mind flitted to Aiko returning last night, how she'd been so cheerful and friendly when Ochako saw her in the hallway about to enter her apartment.

(How the hem of her pants were torn and she had one boot missing, and how her sleeve had specks of blood on it.)

"Guys, I don't think Deku's wrong about how dangerous it is going to heroes," she said slowly. "There's people we know nothing about in this world. We really don't know who we can trust. And the Alliance... it feels like it's more, I don't know, _powerful_ than the League of Villains. And I mean, the League attacked us at USJ and found the training camp, so..." She trailed off with a grimace.

"_Wait,_" Jirou said. "_You don't think they'd have a spy or something in the heroes, right?_"

Ochako's grimace grew even stronger to the point her cheeks almost hurt. "I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised," she admitted sullenly. If anything, she'd be surprised if there _wasn't_ some villainous spy among the heroes with how screwed up this world seemed to be. Maybe not for the Villain Alliance, but there were plenty of other organizations too.

"_Actually, I think the bigger concern is the Hero Commission,_" Todoroki commented thoughtfully, surprising her.

"_Huh?_" Ashido asked. "_What do you mean?_"

"_I don't know much, but... I think there's definitely some shady stuff. When I started at UA, my father warned me to be careful if anyone from there ever approached me._" That was _really_ surprising, having her sitting up straighter. "_He said they're good as allies and have decent resources, but they have a policy of treating heroes more as assets. He didn't go into too much detail, but he seemed wary of them._"

Ochako felt a distinct tension as they listened to him, the air growing heavy in the empty warehouse. She had never heard about any of this before—honestly, she'd never really thought about the Commission beyond the rankings and public information. "_Wait, do you think that thing about Hawks might be true then?_" Kaminari asked breathlessly, and Ochako's eyes widened in alarm.

"_Maybe?_" Todoroki sounded unsure, making her wince. Please, please, _please_ be wrong... "_I never met him so I don't know. But..._" Oh dang it, there was a but. "_When he warned me about it, he said he once had to help get them to back off trying to get custody of someone. He didn't give me all the details, but in that same conversation he mentioned something about them valuing Quirks too much. It felt hypocritical coming from him._"

"_I take it he's elitist about powerful Quirks?_" Anjou asked dryly, and there was a brief pause on Todoroki's end.

"_Okay, so Todo looks kinda weird, so I think we need to change the topic,_" Ashido piped up after a few seconds a little more high-pitched than usual, making Ochako frown. This really did not ease her growing concerns about Todoroki's home life, seeing as something had to drive Dabi to villainy _and oh sweet All Might, Dabi was a Todoroki. Dang it brain, stop thinking about that already!_

"Okay!" she piped up, clapping her hands and dispelling the thoughts before to summarize. "So to summarize everything! We might all have subconscious memories or something, and everything Deku said last night was probably connected to his memories, right?"

"_Sounds about right, I guess,_" Kaminari agreed quickly.

"_Seems like it,_" Anjou added.

"_Yeah,_" Jirou muttered. "_So going by all this, and that one line about the _world_, what are the chances that this world's Midoriya got caught up in some crazy conspiracy beyond the Villain Alliance, and involving the Hero Commission could be just as bad?_"

Somehow, the resounding silence felt like answer enough.

"_Dang it,_" Kaminari groaned. "_Why couldn't this just be a simple 'call the heroes and beat the bad guy' thing?_"

"_Honestly, even if we _did_ call heroes, now I don't want the Commission to hear about the dimension jumping,_" Ashido moaned pitifully. "_All that stuff Todo said is making me super-paranoid!_"

"_Yeah, me too, and I'm barely involved in this,_" Kirishima grumbled.

"_Honestly, I'd be against calling them anyway,_" Anjou piped up. "_Or at least right now. Even without the risk of some _other_ conspiracies going on there, which I'm kinda leaning towards, they'd probably want to question everyone involved. And not sure how much investigation we could get done after that since you'd all be in custody._"

"This is so complicated," Ochako groaned, pressing a hand to her face.

"_Guess we should focus on what we _can_ do then,_" Todoroki remarked. "_Does anyone have any ideas on how to get everyone out?_"

"_It would help if we had some more details,_" Jirou said, and Ochako winced at the pointed remark.

"Sorry, I'm still not comfortable sharing everything over the phone," she muttered guiltily.

"_Us either,_" Anjou added with a sigh. "_Sorry, it's complicated._"

"_Then maybe we can, you know, meet in person?_" Kaminari suggested eagerly. "_You guys can come to Hosu, or we can all go to Odawara! But uh, I guess it'd be tricky for Midoriya to leave, huh,_" he added dejectedly.

"It would," Ochako agreed glumly.

"_And guessing you still don't want to say where you are,_" Anjou muttered.

"...Not really." Saying the city with the Alliance's base over the phone still felt too risky. "I don't even know where you guys would stay overnight, either..."

"_Honestly, a meeting in person would be best,_" Anjou said. "_I'd prefer to meet all of you so I could tag you with my Quirk, but I've got to go back to Kamino today because I still have school tomorrow._"

"_Your Quirk?_" Kaminari repeated curiously.

"_It actually _would_ be useful,_" Todoroki murmured.

"_Yeah, totally!_" Ashido agreed brightly. "_I mean, I don't remember all the details and I'm pretty sure there's more stuff I don't know, but it can—_"

"_I'd rather not say it over the phone,_" Anjou cut in sharply. "_You know, paranoia saves lives and all that. But now I'm thinking, if you guys can all get to Odawara, I can at least leave a letter explaining everything. I'd rather do it in person, but like I said, I've got to go back to Kamino, and the police might be watching me since they're looking for Ashido and Kirishima. But if you agree to let me use it, maybe you can head over to Kamino and we can meet up just long enough for me to tag you. I'd only need to touch you for a couple seconds for it to work._"

Listening to her made Ochako frown in thought, her curiosity rising. There _did_ seem to be something big going on in Odawara since they were all so cagey about their answers, and even Todoroki said Anjou's Quirk would be useful. More than that though, she'd like to be able to talk to everyone in person. Talking to them over the phone was great, but it still felt so distant. She wouldn't feel like this was _really_ happening until she actually saw them with her own eyes.

"I can probably make a day trip to Odawara," she said after a few seconds. It wasn't too far from Nabu, Nabu was right on the border to the next prefecture where it was. "And maybe even a trip to Kamino, too, since I have the wig."

"_Yeah, no one would recognize you with that!_" Ashido exclaimed. "_Oh! Oh! Chako-chan, do you have more wigs? Do you think one could hide my horns?_" Ochako paused at the question, thinking to when Aiko led her to an apartment across the hallway and opened a bedroom door to reveal shelves with row upon rows of wigs. The room also had a lot of clothes, too; actually, the clothing racks _far_ outnumbered the wigs, but the literal rainbow of wigs had been more eye-catching.

"Yes," she said firmly. "Give me a color and style request, and I'll see if I can get it." Ashido whooped in excitement and quickly listed off some ideas. It might be presumptive to answer like that without even asking Aiko first, but something told Ochako that she would be more than happy to help find a wig for someone with horns like Ashido's. The woman seemed oddly passionate about disguises, and it had taken some effort to _not_ get a full makeover from her.

And besides, AIko already knew Ochako had an online friend, so it wouldn't be too hard to explain the whole runaway situation to her. She could use delivering the wig as a pretext for the trip to Odawara.

"_Kaminari and I can probably head over to Odawara tomorrow too,_" Jirou said when Ashido finished. "_Or any day that works for Uraraka, really. We're both doing school online, so we can catch a train after the morning check-in._"

"I should be able to come over tomorrow too," Ochako agreed with a nod, feeling a little bit of relief at being able to meet them all in person to explain everything. Relief, and _excitement_. They'd been waiting to meet other people from 1-A for so long, and now that it was finally happening she couldn't wait! Still, one little detail dampened her excitement though. "I just wish Deku could come too..."

Her remark seemed to sober everyone's mood, a sense of tension palpable even over the phones. "_We'll figure something out,_" Jirou promised. "_Maybe tomorrow when we all meet._"

"_Yeah, we're not leaving Midoriya in the dark!_" Kaminari added.

"_We'll find a way to meet Mido-kun soon, just you wait!_" Ashido declared cheerfully, and Ochako smiled. Things might be looking up.

* * *

Today fucking _sucked_.

First off, Deku never showed up that morning. No, that _Toga_ chick did to bring Katsuki breakfast (which was just sandwiches) and drag him over to Hijack's cell. Apparently Deku was feeling down or something and wanted to stay in his room for a while, he didn't know the details and neither did she. She just figured it'd be "boring" to sit around alone in his cell, which she wasn't wrong about.

But then she'd hung around for about half an hour to just talk to them before she _finally_ left. She wasn't too bad compared to some of the freaks around here, but she was still a fucking psycho with a creepy obsession with Hijack. It clearly rattled his nerves, so of course Katsuki booted up Mario Kart to get his mind off it. He even let the guy win a race because it took two rounds for him to finally focus on it.

And then fucking _Seiko_ appeared to watch them play. _Again._

Katsuki didn't even know how long she was there. He only realized when the cat suddenly jumped and darted behind Hijack, and when they looked over there she was, sitting on the floor by the bed staring at the TV. No words or even anything to show she noticed them notice there, just sitting there with her head staring forward at the screen in total silence.

It almost gave Katsuki a heart attack. Then Eyebags actually offered to let her play _for some damn reason_, but she'd refused and said she just wanted to watch. So they just went back to racing, trying to ignore her and how the cat kept hissing and shrinking away. Given how silent Seiko was, that _should_ be easy, but it wasn't. How the hell did someone cause so much stress by just _being_ there?

By the time the door _finally_ opened and the nerd walked in, Katsuki's nerves were just at their end. "Hey guys—_Seiko?_" He startled upon seeing Seiko watching the TV, and of course she turned to look at him, dead silent. Deku just stared at her wide-eyed, almost dropping the notebook he was holding. "Uh."

"Where the hell were you," Katsuki seethed as he jabbed the pause button. He considered it very impressive he didn't shout or explode his controller given how on edge he was.

"I had a... weird night and morning...?" Deku trailed off and remained in the doorway, eying Seiko warily while the creepy brat turned back to the screen. "Um, why are you here?"

"I'm watching the race. The pink one keeps losing." Okay, _what the actual fuck_. Katsuki had no idea how to respond to that, and neither did Deku or Eyebags judging by their silence.

"Deku, just get get inside already and close the door," he snapped instead, and that seemed to snap Deku out of his stupor and scramble inside. Before he could close the door though Sushi suddenly jumped off the bed and raced out like a bat out of hell, making Hijack shout in muffled indignation and horror. Deku jumped with a yelp as the cat darted around his legs to squeeze through the gap.

"Oh, shoot, sorry Hijack! I'll go catch her! Just—here!" He sprinted over to the bed and shoved the notebook at Katsuki. "Hold onto this while I'm gone, I'll be back later." He turned and sprinted back to the door, but then paused in the frame before turning around. "Uh, Seiko, c-could you maybe help look too?"

The creepy brat turned her head to look at him, and Katsuki tried not to focus on how that was _literally_ the only motion she made. Just her neck turning perfectly smoothly, her head not even bobbing even a _little_ with the movement. "Why?"

"Because I kinda have no idea which way Sushi ran, and the base is kinda... _big_." Deku rubbed the back of his neck, and after several moments she finally gave a solitary nod and her head turned forward again.

"Fine." With that she disappeared into the floor, the shadows reaching out to envelop her without her even bothering to stand up. All at once Katsuki felt a good chunk of his tension fade, and Deku breathed a small sigh of relief.

"I'll be back after I find Sushi. Keep an eye on my notebook until I'm back." He hurried out and closed the door, but the last remark had Katsuki's eyes narrowing. He turned the notebook over in his hands and quickly noticed one of the pages had the corner folded over, so he flipped it open to there. Hijack leaned over to look as well, clearly picking up on Deku's barely hidden message to _read the damn notebook_.

'_We have more allies outside now. Can't give many details because it's too risky & we only briefed them last night so nothing solid planned yet, but we can trust them. You-know-who will handle calls and keep it updated because it's too risky to do it here. I wrote some basic stuff about them on the next page, so read it now because we need to destroy this later. Let me know if you've got any ideas from it, I'll keep you updated on any plans._'

The message had Katsuki quietly scoffing, and even Eyebags looked a bit suspicious. "Think this is credible?" he asked flatly, and the vigilante shrugged, grabbing the whiteboard and a marker instead of his phone this time.

'_Do we have any choice?_' he wrote. The answer: Not really. Katsuki huffed as he flipped to the next page, and as promised Deku had scribbled down some basic stuff on the allies.

He'd somehow found a total of five other people, including the floaty chick they already knew about. None of them were police or Pro Heroes, which would have been the _most_ helpful right now, but he had to raise an eyebrow at their descriptions. A pair of vigilantes with some kind of electricity Quirk and a sound-based one, a girl who could produce acid or some shit, and a guy who who could make fire and ice. It was a weird and random group, and he had questions on how they got involved in this.

Still, one detail caught his eye. The vigilantes had an inventor friend apparently, who wasn't in on _this_ situation, but Deku thought that they could provide some decent resources. That part at least could be useful, and when he glanced at Hijack he could tell he probably had some ideas too.

With the way things were going, they could use any allies they could get.

* * *

**Fun fact: Jirou originally mentioned the rooftop thing in the original phone call. Because of that, I have two other drafts of this revelation from Kaminari and Izuku's POV. Also the manga is still chaotic and didn't really give any direct confirmation on that one character's status, but hopefully the initial fervor has died down a bit. But anime-only fans should still be careful.**

**Question for next time: W****hat do you think the Ignite counterpart of a character we haven't seen yet is up to? ****(By the way, if you have any suggestions for these questions, throw them out!)**


	59. Chapter 59: Nauseating Deja Vu

Chapter 59

.::Nauseating Deja Vu::.

Seiko had searched for the cat named Sushi for approximately five minutes before losing interest. Part of it had to do with how the base was largely empty with no one else around, making her search through the empty halls rather boring. Another part (and perhaps the bigger one) was that she simply didn't care for cats.

Every time Izuku had introduced her to one of the previous Sushis, the cats had reacted the same. Hiss at her from a safe distance, ears flat against their head and backs arched, and then flee at the first chance if she lingered too long. If she found Sushi, the cat surely would just flee again. Really, Izuku should have known better than to ask her to help search.

Perhaps whatever happened last night had to do with his lack of judgment. Initially she thought he'd had another episode. They had happened mid-day before, though admittedly that was a bit rare. He'd also never had one while still _mid_-episode, either, which made it interesting. His reactions soon proved that wrong though since he clearly remembered her and what was going on, though he was clearly disoriented nonetheless.

Whatever the case, it seemed to be likely connected to the memory-altering Quirk. Maybe his conversation with Eraserhead had triggered a new facet of it. Mid-day episodes most commonly occurred mid-conversation based on the few times she'd seen it. Hmm, maybe she should have listened in after all.

Oh well. Since she'd lost interest in searching for the cat, Seiko decided to instead take advantage of the empty base. A trip to Toga Himiko's room ended with Seiko armed with the teenager's makeup kit, which she took to an empty hallway she knew Izuku had already checked.

She got ten minutes of uninterrupted work before she sensed a familiar presence approach, and after a moment's contemplation decided it was not reason enough to pause her work. As such, she fully anticipated when Aiko turned a corner, stopped, and gave a aggravated sigh. "What are you doing?"

Seiko didn't respond, attention focused on the tree she'd drawn onto the wall with blood red lipstick. The wide trunk had wavy lines that curled to frame a large hole near the center, while the branches became more and more narrow and spiky with each additional split. She now held an eyeshadow brush dipped in red to color directly below the eyes of the severed head sitting inside the hollow, making its eyes look bloody. There was no particular meaning to the head. She just thought the reactions would be more amusing.

"...Know what, I don't even want to know," Aiko grumbled. "Freaking demon..." Once again Seiko elected not to respond, long used to Aiko's grumblings about her nature. She put down the brush and picked up the nearly-finished lipstick to add some more specks of red like blood splatter, patiently waiting for Aiko to speak as she worked. Soon enough, she did. "I got a call from Himiko yesterday. Did you know Eraserhead was here?"

"Yes." Seiko had seen Shigaraki take custody of him after all, and even if she hadn't, she would have inevitably learned of it from gossip.

"I see, I see," Aiko hummed, perfectly pleasant. "And you know what else I also learned about this week? Bakugou Katsuki is here too."

"He arrived on the ninth," Seiko supplied dully, and heard Aiko clap.

"_Fascinating!_" she chirped, smile audible in her voice. "Thank you for being so specific, Seiko-chan!"

"You're welcome," Seiko replied.

"_I was being sarcastic, you Eldritch abomination._" Seiko finally turned her head away from her work to glance at Aiko, finding the woman shooting her a sour scowl. "Why the hell didn't you tell me about any of this? Izuku, I can get. He knows me and how I'd react, but you don't give a damn about that and would probably tell me because _you_ know how I'd react."

Seiko blinked once, slowly and deliberately, and then said, "You do not wish for me to visit your apartment, and I have no means to contact you. And on your previous visits here, you have made it quite clear you did not wish to speak to me."

Aiko shot her a withering glare, shoulders slumping and lips curling back like she'd bitten something sour. "I hate you," she growled, and Seiko turned back to her drawing. Would shading in the actual eyes with the lipstick look creepier, or were they better closed? "Okay, brat, where's Izuku now?"

"Looking for Sushi."

She expected Aiko to ask about why Izuku was looking for Sushi. But instead she got a thoughtful hum. "So, he's not with Eraserhead?"

"No."

"_Wonderful._ Thank you, Seiko." With that Aiko walked past her without another word. Seiko set down the lipstick, satisfied with the severed head, and tipped her head to look at the rest of the tree. The branches looked jagged and sharp compared to the trunk, and felt a bit too bare for her liking. Time to add some foliage.

To that end she picked up the eyeshadow and blush, going for a mixture of red and pink. Shadowy tendrils extended from her body to grip the brushes to begin filling it in the branches above her reach.

A cherry blossom tree sounded nice.

* * *

So everyone was going to meet in person tomorrow. Izuku was admittedly pretty bummed to read about that in the FacePage group chat since he had no way to go with them, at least on such short notice. The idea of not being able to meet everyone in person made his chest ache, especially since Uraraka sent him a private message mentioning tomorrow would probably be the best time to tell Todoroki about Dabi.

The impending meeting haunted his thoughts as he searched the Alliance's base for Sushi, with the help of Toga of all people. He'd run into her while lost in one of the halls, and once he explained that Seiko had apparently spooked Sushi she'd been more than eager to help look.

"Twicey would probably help too, but he's out today," she commented cheerfully as she led the way, all but skipping down the hall.

"Is it just me, or is _everyone_ gone today?" Izuku muttered. He'd noticed the base seemed unusually quiet and empty today, which was honestly a relief given he still felt _highly_ disoriented. If he ran into most of them, he wasn't sure he'd be able to react normally. Just thinking about it filled him with some weird sense of anxiety. Even being around Toga was weird, but she was closer in age so it wasn't _as_ terrifying.

"Tomu had a mission today, so a lot of people went out!" Toga explained, and poked her head around a corner. "Nope, no kitty here!"

"Sushi really knows how to hide, huh," Izuku sighed. They'd been searching for half an hour now but had found no sign of the feline. Seiko must have spooked her even worse than he'd thought. "Do you think Seiko's even looking?"

"Nah, she probably got bored or she would've found her by now," Toga dismissed with a shrug, and Izuku paused before sighing.

"That's... probably for the best," he admitted reluctantly. Given Seiko had _probably_ been the reason Sushi ran away like that, she would probably just upset Sushi more if she was the one to find her first. It was _really_ good that most of the villains were out today. Even before this weird... déjà vu, he'd felt unsure about what some of the thugs here would do to the cat.

Toga just hummed. "Kitties never like Seiko-chan. I once saw a squirrel run away from her too!"

_Can't blame them,_ Izuku thought, but didn't voice that out loud. Instead he muttered, "I'm starting to regret asking her to take breakfast to Ai—_Eraserhead_ this morning..." He nearly slipped with Aizawa's real name but caught himself in time. "He's got to be really on edge after yesterday, so I hope that didn't make it worse..." The comment had Toga's head swiveling to look at him with a bright smile.

"That's okay!" she chirped. "I took him breakfast instead!" It took a few seconds for her words to register, and when they did Izuku jumped.

"You did _what_?" he blurted in horror. "But I asked _Seiko_!" Sure, Seiko was creepy as all hell, but she also wouldn't try to (intentionally) terrorize or hurt Aizawa. Toga was her own brand of traumatizing, and he feared for Aizawa-sensei's reaction to her.

"I guess Seiko-chan didn't want to do it so she asked me," Toga said with a shrug, and Izuku wanted to scream or cry or _something_. Instead he settled for a dejected groan.

"_Please_ tell me you didn't do anything weird," he moaned.

"Of course not! I just took him a sandwich. He barely said anything the whole time, but he was super worried about you!" She tilted her head curiously, asking, "Did you two fight yesterday?"

The question had Izuku wincing before he could stop himself, much to his regret. He knew the physical reaction would just spur Toga's curiosity further, so he had to say _something_. "He... wasn't too happy about Kacchan and Hijack," he admitted reluctantly. "He figured out they were prisoners, and obviously that's bad, so..." He trailed off, hoping that would be enough for Toga.

"Is that why you didn't want to see him this morning?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Y-yeah. I figured it'd be good to give him space." That reasoning on its own felt a bit flimsy for subjecting Seiko upon Aizawa, so he added, "That and, uh, I didn't sleep well, s-so... yeah. I didn't really want to see anyone." Hopefully that would suffice for now and she wouldn't press for more details. He didn't want to explain anything about last night. Just thinking about having that... _whatever_ happen in front of Aizawa made Izuku almost flinch guiltily, and he quietly gulped. "Um, how was he?"

Toga hummed, spinning around to keep skpping down the hall in search of Sushi. "I think I woke him up. He sat up really suddenly and looked kinda spooked. Oh! Are his eyes always that bloodshot?"

"Yeah," Izuku replied absently, eyebrows furrowing. "Come to think of it, he usually needs eye drops because of his Quirk... If I'm right he's been a prisoner for over six months, and I doubt anyone would give them to him... Of course I doubt he'd use his Quirk much, either, so maybe the irritation isn't that bad... But is it healthy to go so long without them? Does stopping them suddenly cause more damage? What if—"

He was stopped by a thump against his leg, and his head snapped down to see Sushi rubbing against it. For a second he just stared at the cat dumbly, but then he jumped and practically dove to the ground to snatch her. "Sushi! There you are!" Sushi allowed herself to be picked up without fuss, nuzzling against him contently and bumping her head against his chest with a happy-sounding purr.

"Aw, she's so cute!" Toga squealed, almost teleporting to his side to scratch Sushi behind the ear. "She's so much sweeter than the last Sushi!"

"She does like people a lot," Izuku agreed, even as he wondered, _The _last_ Sushi?_ He shrugged it off and commented, "She spends most of the time with Hijack, so I haven't gotten to hold her much. She's really friendly though." Usually the cats he saw avoided people, but given the apparent history of cats named Sushi he felt it safer not to mention that in case there were any other exceptions.

"Ooh, does that mean Jackie will get to rename him?" Toga asked eagerly, and Izuku paused. From what Aiko said, Kurogiri apparently named every cat Sushi for some reason until someone else changed it.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said. "They spend the most time together, so it's only fair."

"We should probably get her back now!" Toga said with a grin, and Izuku somehow managed to suppress the look of pure panic. He still did _not_ want to subject Shinsou and Bakugou to Toga more than strictly necessary. More than that, he'd left the notebook with his notes on the others. If Toga saw that, then even if Kacchan had destroyed those pages she might get curious about it.

"Um, m-maybe I should go alone," he squeaked, and her grin gave way to a pout.

"Aw, but why?" she whined, and he grimaced.

"I'm sorry, but you can be kind of... intimidating, sometimes, and they're not used to your, uh, enthusiasm. And I think Seiko was there watching them for a while before I showed up?" He shrugged lamely. "I don't know, they said she did that yesterday too while I was gone. And you know how—uh, stressful, maybe? I mean, how when you're around Seiko for a while, and you don't know her that well..."

Toga tilted her head as he trailed off, pout fading to a surprisingly contemplative look. "You mean how spooky she is, and being around her leaves you feeling all creepy and jumpy?" she suggested, surprising Izuku. He hadn't expected her to be so insightful, or to even admit that Seiko gave people those sorts of feelings given she seemed to _like_ the girl. He thought she might be immune to the effects, or at least _used_ to it, but apparently not.

"Yeah, that," he agreed with a nod. "They're both probably really on edge—I'm actually kinda surprised Kacchan didn't destroy the controllers—so bringing you along might just stress them out more. I'm really sorry."

Toga still looked disappointed, but to his relief she heaved a big, dramatic sigh and nodded her head. "Yeah, I guess so," she relented, cheeks puffing as she pouted. "I still _really_ want to see Jackie, but I can wait a bit." She quickly perked up though, flashing another big grin as she gave a little clap. "Oh! But before you go, I have something for you!"

"You do?" Izuku asked, shoving down the instant of sheer dread. She bobbed her head eagerly, reaching into her sweater's pocket to pull out something wrapped in a handkerchief. The fabric was white with a largely pink petal pattern, with a few random red petals that he at first mistook for blood splatters.

"Ta-da!" she said with a bright smile, shoving it towards him. "Don't open it up until you're alone or with Jackie and Tsuki-chan, okay?" That didn't help ease Izuku's concern, but he forced a weak smile as he shifted his hold on Sushi so he could take it—or tried to, anyway. The object wasn't _too_ big, but holding both it and an armful of cat was tricky. And then he realized he'd _also_ have to open the door to Shinsou's cell.

After a few seconds of trying to figure out a good way to balance both, he sighed and withdrew his hand to clutch Sushi again. "Can you just put it in my pocket?" he asked lamely.

"Of course!" she chirped, and quickly slid it into the pocket of his hoodie before scratching Sushi's ear again. "I'm so glad you're safe, kitty! I'll see you later, Mido-chan!"

"Bye, Toga," Izuku said, and the girl gave a jaunty wave before twirling and bouncing off. As he turned to head to Shinsou's cell he allowed himself a soft sigh of relief to finally be away from her, before wondering about what she'd given him. Whatever it was, Izuku could tell it was something hard from how it bounced against his side as he walked.

It didn't take long to reach the room, and he knocked on the door with his foot before awkwardly fumbling to enter the code to unlock it. "I got Sushi," he declared as he entered. The other two were sitting on the bed again, the Switch notably turned off and controllers stored away with the notebook open on Bakugou's lap. Shinsou all but jumped to his feet, eagerly crossing the room to take back the feline with obvious relief.

"Took you long enough," Bakugou huffed, and Izuku sighed.

"Sorry. I'm kinda disoriented today." That was an understatement, and one he didn't want to risk being overhead. Biting his lip, he checked that Shinsou had a good grip on Sushi before calling, "Seiko?" The room felt tense as they all held their breaths, but after several seconds passed without anything happening his shoulders slumped with a relieved sigh. "Okay, I guess she's not here then."

"You sure?" Bakugou grumbled, and Izuku could only give a helpless shrug.

"Not really," he admitted miserably. "But usually if I call her she shows up, so for now I'll just assume she's not here." He sincerely hoped that was the case, if only for his peace of mind. "Last night when I took Eraserhead dinner, something weird happened."

With that he proceeded to fill them in on what happened, from the argument to the sudden "white-out" and subsequent disorientation. Izuku felt they needed to know everything, as it could impact their escape plans. He also included a rough summary of the speculations he'd seen in the chat just before heading over to Shinsou's room, though he phrased it as if it were his own thoughts just in case Seiko _was_ listening.

"It could be a symptom of an upcoming 'episode,' but I don't think they usually have warning signs or I wouldn't be able to really hide them," he said. "I do feel like there must be some sort of connection to it though. I think I still remembered some stuff subconsciously, but now my subconscious has kinda... forgotten it." Honestly, he'd started suspecting that even before whatever happened last night, so to hear the others validate it with similar experiences (even if they didn't detail them over the messages) made it seem even more likely.

Shinsou and Bakugou both looked contemplative. "So what, it's like a pseudo-episode?" the blond grumbled. "Is that even possible?"

"I don't have any better explanations," Izuku said with a shrug, sighing as he walked over to the bed. He picked up the open notebook almost absently, noting he could see shreds of paper near the spiral binding showing at least one page had been torn out. The remaining page had writing, but not his own, piquing his curiosity.

'_Inventor & bracelets_'

For a few seconds Izuku looked at the words with blank confusion, but then it suddenly clicked and he jolted. "Seiko, if you're there, can you come out?" he called tightly. "I have a question." Several seconds passed in silence.

"What do you need to ask her?" Bakugou asked when she didn't appear.

"Nothing, I just wanted to be absolutely sure she's not here," Izuku responded as he turned to face them both. "Do you think we should ask the inventor if she can look at the anklets?"

"No, I want to ask her to make us matching friendship bracelets," the blond snorted sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Look, we have no idea how to unlock them yet and we don't even know what kind of bomb it is. Maybe if we can get her one, she can figure some shit out. So do you know where they keep the spares?"

"Well, if I did, I don't think I do now," Izuku groaned. "And I don't know if I can really ask anyone about those, so..."

"So basically, you're even more useless than usual," Bakugou growled irritably, and Izuku couldn't even argue that.

"Maybe I can ask Aiko?" he mumbled. "She seems to be really friendly and open to questions, and she knows I'm supposedly having an episode, so if I ask her about the bomb she'd probably tell me. Maybe she'd tell me how they're unlocked, too, but that might make her suspicious if I ask? Actually, she also seems kinda protective like Shigaraki, so if she finds out about... _whatever_ happened last night, she might get freaked out, and she seems _really_ observant so maybe it's a bad idea to talk to her. I guess Seiko would probably tell me where they are if I asked her, but I'd rather not do that..."

While he rambled Shinsou set Sushi on the floor so he could get out his phone, typing quickly. "_What's in the pocket?_" he asked, and Izuku paused, glancing down at his hoodie in surprise. After coming back he'd forgotten about the thing Toga gave him, but he could see a corner of the handkerchief sticking out of his pocket.

"Oh, uh, I don't actually know," he said, pulling out the bundle. "Toga gave it to me after she helped find Sushi. She said not to open it in the hallway, and..." He trailed off as he undid the knot and finally saw what was inside, blinking dumbly. "Um."

"What is it?" Bakugou asked impatiently. Rather than respond, Izuku lifted it up to show another anklet. The band was open with tape around one end to keep it from accidentally closing, the light on it dormant and almost invisible against the dark metal.

For several long seconds none of them spoke. Then, Shinsou lifted his phone to type. "_What the fuck._"

"I have no idea," Izuku whispered, face pale as he stared at the band. There was a thin piece of paper wrapped around one part, and he hesitantly unwrapped it and unfolded it to read it. "Um. '_It's turned off so it won't explode if it leaves. Just don't close it or it'll turn on! Good luck with whatever!_' And then she drew a bunch of hearts." He looked up at them. "Guys, I'm kinda scared."

"...Fuck, I am too," Bakugou muttered, face pale, and Shinsou nodded in agreement.

* * *

Shouta messed up.

Last night he'd just been so shaken up by the discovery there were at _least_ two kids being held prisoner. The stakes had already been high enough with his own life at stake, but discovering there were other prisoners—and _kids_, no less—had kicked up the urgency of the situation. At this point, escape was no longer about his own survival. Rescuing those kids was his _duty_ as a hero, the first duty he'd be able to actually carry out in months.

Shouta already knew that if he wanted to succeed, everything would hinge on getting Midoriya on his side. Loathe as he was to admit it, he lacked the ability to do anything on his own; he couldn't even _stand_ with his leg broken like this. If he wanted to get out of here—if he wanted to _save those kids_—he _needed_ Midoriya's help.

But seeing him with those other two had made Shouta realize how little he knew about the boy, too little to guarantee he'd actually be able to recruit his help. The kid had just been so _calm_, and the only discomfort he'd shown was at Shouta's obvious glare rather than their circumstances. To him, those dark bands and _fucking muzzle_ were just _normal_. Even the other boys had started to adapt to this as _their_ normal.

Something about that had just made it _click_, how much of an _unknown_ Midoriya Izuku really was. He didn't even know the kid's surname was Midoriya until Hijack said the name (with the phone because he was _fucking muzzled_).

The boy had been nice so far, yes, had even gone out of his way to make Shouta comfortable. But was that how he _really_ was? Was it all just an act, to lower his guard and earn Shouta's trust before revealing his true callous nature for maximum effect?

For that reason, Shouta had goaded the boy when he returned with dinner, trying to provoke him with pointed accusations. Every word had been calculated to incite an emotional response, whether to make him angry or simply gauge his feelings and reactions to each statement. If he wanted to get a real sense of Midoriya Izuku's _true_ personality and intent, he needed the boy to drop his meek façade. He needed to see if the mask would break into an explosive rage, cold apathy, or crushing guilt and shame.

And at first, it worked. The kid responded, getting more and more defensive with each word, dropping little hints to his true motivations as anger got the better of him. He was heading to his breaking point, perfectly unaware of Shouta's intentional steering.

He hadn't expected the kid to suddenly stop mid-sentence and fall to his knees.

The kid had gone from shouting defensively to nearly catatonic in the span of a single second. The change had been abrupt with absolutely no warning. It sent a surge of panic and concern through Shouta, not expecting something like _that_, and he'd dragged himself over to check on him. His face was perfectly blank, even his _eyes_ seeming to briefly lose their spark. Shouta had fallen back on his training, nearly started walking him through the process to calm down from a panic attack before realizing this was something else entirely, something he didn't know.

When the kid finally, _finally_ came to his senses, he seemed disoriented and confused. His responses had been sluggish and slow, almost as if he were in a daze. And then, he'd run away. He scrambled to his feet and fled, hadn't even cared that he was leaving behind the plate with the untouched food.

Shouta had proceeded to eat the sushi warily after he left, trying to figure out what he'd just witnessed. Something was _clearly_ wrong, and he wondered if the kid might be able to explain it when he inevitably returned for the empty plate.

But Midoriya never came back for it, the first sign things might be worse than he thought.

And now, Shouta was paying the price for his behavior.

That morning he'd been awoken by the door being slammed open by a teenage girl with blond hair and a school uniform. His first thought had been she might be another prisoner, the idea making his stomach churn. But then he saw her too-sharp smile and the sandwich and realized she wasn't.

Toga Himiko, as she'd introduced herself, was a member of the Alliance, and just as manic as you'd expect of a teenage girl who willingly aligned herself with villains. She'd happily chattered away as he ate, collecting the empty plate from dinner with barely any questions. It had been all he could do not to panic, her questions leaving him without an appetite and eager for her to leave so he could reflect in peace over how Midoriya hadn't come.

_Midoriya hadn't come._

That thought haunted Shouta as he curled on his side, trying to pace his breathing. Had the boy been upset and wanted to avoid him? Had his harsh accusations chased off Midoriya? The possibility made Shouta's chest constrict painfully, his breath catching as his heartbeat picked up. What if Midoriya didn't want to see him anymore? What if he just assigned someone else to look after Shouta?

The mere idea made him want to _scream_. Not again, he couldn't go through that _hell_ again. Last time that happened he'd spent days in total darkness with plastic shoved down his throat, arms trapped against his torso and sludge pouring down a tube for every meal. The memory made him nearly hyperventilate, curling up tight on the ground as he tried to work himself through a potential panic attack before it could form.

For all he didn't trust Midoriya, the boy had been nice. He had tried to make Shouta comfortable, lingered during mealtimes to keep him company, brought him pillows when he didn't need to. He had even let Shouta listen to Hizashi on his phone, spending hours in the cell until the show ended late at night even though he could be in bed fast asleep.

Midoriya was the nicest captor Shouta ever had, and even if that _was_ a façade to lower his guard like he feared, he was a _fool_ to provoke him into potentially ending that kindness. Shouta had realized long ago that many fates worse than death existed. Being abandoned was near the top of his list.

If Midoriya came back, Shouta needed to make it back to the kid's good graces as fast as possible. He'd grovel and touch his forehead to the floor if he had to, but he _needed_ to make sure Midoriya didn't hate him and abandon him. He'd even give up the subtle manipulation, stop trying to test the kid's character. He wouldn't even ask about what happened last night.

Forget escaping, he just didn't want to endure that hell _ever_ again.

The sound of the door opening made him flinch and suck in a sharp breath. This was it, the moment of truth. Either Midoriya would be there, at which point Shouta could gauge how badly he'd fucked up, or someone else would be there, which would _also_ indicate how badly he'd fucked up. Offering a silent prayer, he rolled over and looked at the door, and his heart sank upon seeing a woman.

_Shit._ He'd fucked up _very_ badly then.

In his disappointment and momentary despair, it took a moment to notice two things. First, the woman carried no food, so she wasn't there to bring him a meal. That realization gave him a momentary spark of relief. While he didn't know the purpose of her visit and it could still be bad, this meant there was still a chance Midoriya would return with the next meal and hadn't abandoned him yet.

Then he noticed a familiar pair of yellow goggles around her neck.

He felt himself freeze as his eyes locked onto them, mouth suddenly very dry. _Those were his goggles._ That brief second of relief vanished, his body tense and more on edge than it had been even when Midoriya had suddenly collapsed as he watched her step inside. She closed the door behind herself without ever looking away from Shouta, and he tore his gaze away from the goggles long enough to meet her eyes. Even from a distance he could tell they glittered with white specks, catching the dim light present in the room.

"Hello, Eraserhead," she greeted. "It's been a while."

Alarm bells had already been ringing in his head, but something about her words sent a thrill of dread through him. He wouldn't say he _recognized_ her voice, but the way she said it seemed to tug at his mind, giving him a nauseating sense of danger. He swallowed harshly as he sat up, instincts demanding he not let himself appear any more vulnerable than he was.

"Who are you?" he demanded, and she hummed.

"Guess you wouldn't recognize me, huh?" she mused, which only deepened that intense, instinctive dread. His eyes flicked to his goggles around her neck. _No... It can't be..._ "It's not like you ever saw me back then."

All at once, his mind went blank as a sense of nausea crashed into him, his breath catching painfully in his throat as his chest sharply constricted. _No. _No, no, no, it couldn't be—but it was. Even though he'd never seen her, even though her voice had changed, somehow those words alone were enough to confirm his worst fears.

Still, he found his mouth opening, a single name slipping out full of dread. "Aiko."

* * *

**No question for next time. Your reactions are enough.**


	60. Chapter 60: Nostalgic Meeting

_(Minor trigger warning: description of a drawing of hanging bodies. Just in case.)_

Chapter 60

.::Nostalgic Meeting::.

Izuku had been on his way to his room when he found Seiko drawing on the wall. He had to stop when he turned the corner, eyes immediately fixed on the bloody red tree.

"Uh, Seiko?" he asked, voice just slightly higher pitched than usual.

"Yes?" she asked, not bothering to look back at him.

"Are those... _bodies_ hanging from the tree?" He stared at the distinctly humanoid figures dangling from the tree branches, feeling more than a little unnerved. Sketchy-looking strokes had been used to create the human outlines, more detailed than stick figures but still rather bare and all the more creepy looking for it.

"Yes," she replied simply, still not bothering to turn around. Her full attention seemed to be focused on using those shadowy tendrils to add some strokes to one of the faces. The faces lacked a lot of fine detail other than slash-like cross marks for the eyes and scratchy-looking circles for the mouths, which honestly made it worse.

"...Oh," Izuku said lamely, for lack of anything better to say. For a moment they just stood in silence, Seiko continuing her work while Izuku watched in a sort of numb state. Okay, so drawing on the walls was totally a thing kids did, and quite possibly the most normal thing Seiko had done so far. But she also seemed a bit old for that, and the whole hanging corpses thing was definitely _wait was that a head in the hole in the tree's center?_

"By the way, Aiko is here." Izuku was so transfixed by the _eerily detailed severed human head sitting in the hollow_ that it took a few seconds for Seiko's words to register. When they did he just blinked mildly, still a bit dazed by the _severed head_.

"Oh, where is she?" he asked almost absently. Aiko visiting didn't seem too alarming right now, or maybe he was just focused on the _tears of blood_.

"She went to visit Eraserhead," Seiko responded idly.

This time, the words had the instant impact they deserved. Izuku snapped out of his stunned state instantly, the nightmarish tree promptly forgotten. "She did _what_?" he squeaked, face rapidly draining of color. _No, no no no!_ She wasn't supposed to know about him! They had been so careful not to tell her he was here! "Did you tell her?"

"No. She said Toga told her on a phone call yesterday." Izuku resisted the urge to simultaneously groan and scream. How did he not account for Toga? He _knew_ she and Aiko talked, Aiko mentioned her telling her about Uraraka when he first met her!

This was bad. This was very bad. He turned and all but fled to Aizawa's cell, not caring if Seiko might follow him or not. He still had no idea what their connection was, but Aiko had his goggles, and he sincerely doubted Aizawa handed them over willingly.

_Please don't let him be too late before something bad happened._

* * *

"Aiko."

The name alone had Shouta's skin prickling with goosebumps as he said it, hoping—_praying_—that he was wrong. He'd never seen her, and this woman's voice was different, just the slightest bit deeper. It could easily just be lingering paranoia, years-old unease brought back to the surface by his current circumstances. Yet even so he already sensed deep down that he was right.

The woman smiled thinly, expression wry and lacking any humor. "Guess I stand corrected," she chuckled. Shouta _flinched_ at the confirmation, swearing he felt his heartbeat briefly stutter as a full-body shudder wracked his frame. It felt like ice had been dumped over him, like the world had suddenly shrunk around him, like he was trapped with his arms against his chest and eyes covered and _couldn't breathe_—

No. He firmly banished the memories even as he cringed in on himself, forcing himself to breathe steadily as his gaze fell to his lap. Five things he could see: His pants. The splint around his broken leg. His shirt. A dark red blanket spread on the floor. An off-white pillow skewed and rumpled near the end from when he'd abruptly sat up.

Four things he could feel: The worn, slightly itchy material of his shirt. The soft but slightly irritating material of the gray mittens against his hands. Pressure around his neck, and the weight of a chain hanging from it to drape down to the floor—

Shouta sucked in a sharp breath and hissed in displeasure as he lightly shook his head. _Fuck,_ he was trying to ground himself to prevent a panic attack, but it just reminded him of his predicament. He grit his teeth in frustration, silently commanding himself to stay calm. Reminding himself that even if he was vulnerable and restrained, he wasn't back _there_. He could still see, could still move his arms and good leg.

But it was hard to convince himself that he was safe with _her_ in the room.

Despite his acute distress, Shouta knew he couldn't stay silent and panic forever. Silently counting backwards from ten, once he reached zero he forced himself to lift his head again to look at Aiko. She'd moved a few steps away from the door and sat on the floor while he'd focused on grounding himself, now holding his goggles in her hands and idly fiddling with the straps.

Part of him felt relief she wasn't looking at him even as his anxiety spiked at seeing the familiar yellow goggles in her hands. She didn't seem to expect him to say something, letting him work through his emotions in his own time. Quite possibly one of the few positive things about her was that she never pushed him to speak, usually filling in the silence herself and letting him respond on his own terms. It was one of the few things he had _any_ control over.

This time Shouta knew it wouldn't be an option though. She had clearly sought him out, and he doubted she would leave without satisfying whatever urge drew her here. And he knew she wouldn't start until _he_ opened up the conversation to signify he was ready.

"What do you want?" he ground out reluctantly, and her eyes flicked up. That star-like pattern was almost mesmerizing, a dazzling and eye-catching feature he'd never have associated with her even after all the years of dreaming of the face that went with that voice. If he didn't know any better he'd suspect she had some sort of hypnotic Emitter-type Quirk that centered around them.

(But he _did_ know better, knew enough to want her to stay as far away as possible even if he didn't know the full specifics.)

"To talk, mostly," she replied with a small shrug, gaze returning to his goggles. "I only found out you were here last night. Honestly, I thought you might be dead." The casualness of the remark had him wincing even as she continued, "Last I heard about you was in April. Don't know if that's when you got captured or if you kept a low profile for a while, but it's definitely been long enough for the three month rule to take effect."

The casual remark had his teeth grinding in apprehension, though for different reasons now. "How the hell do you even know about that?" he demanded.

His question had Aiko pausing, glancing up at him curiously. "Is it... _not_ common knowledge?" she asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"No, it's not," he spat sharply. The three month rule, while commonly recognized among underground heroes and those who worked with them, wasn't exactly _common_ knowledge. They didn't really want villains knowing that after three months all search efforts would likely end. Who knew what sick and twisted games they'd play with _that_ information, both on their victims and those searching desperately for them.

"Huh," she said softly, looking distant and thoughtful, before finally shrugging and returning to her fiddling. "Learn something new every day. Thank you for telling me, I'll make a point not to reference it in the future. It's so hard to keep track of what's common knowledge, and that one doesn't ever come up so it's the first I've heard of it."

Shouta almost wanted to bang his head against the floor at how _blatantly_ she avoided his question. Even with his nerves at an all-time high, he felt a pang of annoyance at how she danced around the question. He didn't push it though, knowing it would be futile. "Would you _actually_ care if I died?" he questioned instead.

"I wouldn't be broken up over it, but I'd still be a little sad," she responded idly. "You _are_ one of my favorite heroes, believe it or not. I think most people would have retired after that, but you didn't. You went back in, just like you said you would. Every time I see you, you still have this fight and spark of will in your eyes. I already respected you for that, but seeing you in action... It's hard not to be a fan." Once more her remarks had Shouta stilling, breath catching as he caught onto the implications.

"We've met since then?" he whispered hoarsely. _When?_ Surely he'd remember seeing someone with those eyes, unless she wore contacts. Had she been in disguise? Or had she been spying on him? Had she _followed_ him without him knowing? How long—

"We have similar tastes in criminal organizations," she said before his thoughts could spiral too far. "You just happen to target a lot of groups I like to keep an eye on." She paused in her fiddling then, the strap twisted and looped once around a single finger, and frowned. "I should've investigated this last one more closely. Then I would've been the one to find you instead of Tomura."

Her expression darkened, voice dipping lower, and Shouta found himself cringing and shrinking away as a tremor started to spread through his body. He was _not_ in that room again, he was _not_ in that damn jacket, he did _not_ have plastic shoved into his mouth and cloth wrapped tight over his eyes. He was still collared and chained to the floor like an animal, but he wasn't in that place anymore.

But _she_ was _here_ now. The situation had been dire, he knew that already, but he hadn't thought _she_ would show up now. He'd been captured a few other times in the past and she'd never appeared then, but he should have known. He should have fucking realized with all the rumors about the Alliance that she might be connected to it, no matter how marginal that connection might be.

"I should have looked deeper," she grumbled, expression still dark and radiating displeasure. "Things could have been so much different if I'd just _known_..." Her voice trailed off into a bitter whisper. Shouta remained silent and braced himself, measured his breathing and counted back from ten to _calm down_.

He'd reached four when the door opened, startling him out of his counting and nearly making him gasp. His head snapped to the side to see Midoriya standing there, eyes wide with shock and alarm as he looked at them.

Shouta couldn't really define the sudden onslaught of emotions at seeing the teen. Earlier he likely would have been panicked, overcome with relief and perhaps ready to grovel, but right now he felt so _much_ and so _strongly_ that it was just too much. It left his mind frayed and uncertain of _what_ to feel, leaving him feeling largely blank. Midoriya's wide eyes met Shouta's for a split-second before focusing on Aiko, mouth pulling into a small frown.

"Aiko-nee, what are you doing here?" he asked as he walked into the room. _Aiko-nee,_ Shouta's mind repeated. _Shit._ She had twisted to face Midoriya, her earlier dark aura gone and faced lit up with a bright smile as she got to her feet.

"Just visiting Eraserhead and catching up," she replied cheerfully. "I can't believe you didn't tell me who was here, Izun. Or, well, I _can_," she amended with a faint chuckle. "Considering, you know." Midoriya's frown remained as he walked closer, circling around her while keeping a distance. Shouta didn't bother tracking his movements that closely, attention focused largely on Aiko to check her reaction to his presence.

"So you two know each other?" Midoriya asked.

"We've crossed paths before," she replied cryptically, still smiling. It was a friendly and gentle smile, the kind reserved for someone very precious. It felt odd seeing it on the face of a person who had haunted his nightmares for years even without a face.

"Like, as enemies?" Midoriya pressed, voice just slightly nervous, and her smile faded slightly as she sighed.

"Izuku, it's complicated. Maybe I'll explain some other time, but right now I just want to talk to him for a bit. Could you leave?" Shouta shuddered almost instinctively at her request, recalling that suffocating atmosphere he felt years ago, thick and oppressive and smothering him relentlessly even if only for a brief time. She didn't radiate an iota of that darkness right now, seeming for all the world to be a normal person, but he couldn't forget it.

"Um, I'd rather not," Midoriya replied after a moment, and both adults froze at that. Shouta's eyes finally tore away from Aiko to look at the green-haired teenager, taking in the anxious hunch to his shoulders as he shifted nervously and stammered, "I-I mean, Eraserhead is kind of my responsibility now, because T-Tomura-nii, well, you know. A-and I'd rather not... leave him alone with, well, anyone."

His words came out nervous and quiet, clearly uncomfortable with confrontation. Yet at the same time he spoke with an undercurrent of determination, his posture growing straighter and more firm as he spoke. As Shouta watched him it suddenly occurred to him the boy had placed himself between him and Aiko, using his own body almost as a shield. The realization made his eyes widen, his gaze flitting back to Aiko to gauge her reaction.

She didn't look displeased by the obvious defiance, instead regarding him thoughtfully. "Not even me?" she asked, and Shouta saw the boy tense briefly before shaking his head.

"No, not even you, Aiko-nee," he confirmed quietly, fists clenching at his side. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Aiko's mouth curved into a faint smile, fondness sparkling among the star-like spots dotting her irises. "You're just doing what you think is right, hard to be angry at that." She held up her hands in a show of mock surrender as she stepped back, dipping her head. "I'll just head out then. Don't tell Tomura you saw me though," she added with a sheepish chuckle. "I _kinda_ snuck in, and you know how he gets when I don't say hi to him or stop by when he's not around."

Midoriya looked startled by the request, but his shoulders soon slumped. "Are you actually trying to avoid him?"

"Maybe a little," she admitted far too cheerfully. "Anyways, see you later Izuku!" She darted forward long enough to ruffle his hair, laughing when he squawked in dismay. As he rushed to fix his hair she shot a glance at Shouta, making him stiffen as she added, "And you too, Eraserhead." He flinched at the thought of her returning, but bit his lip and kept silent. With a final wave she turned and left, the thud of the door leaving them in heavy silence.

Only then did Shouta finally let himself slump forward, exhaling a shaky breath as his heartbeat finally slowed to a more reasonable pace. Midoriya spun to face him as he slumped, darting over to his side and dropping into a crouch. "A—E-Eraserhead, sir?" he asked hurriedly. "Are you okay?"

Shouta blinked slowly, still processing what just happened, and took a deep breath as he looked up. Midoriya had an openly worried look on his face as he hovered just beyond Shouta's reach, the concern in his eyes feeling almost palpable. Whether it was genuine or faked, Shouta was in no state to determine right now, his mind still reeling from everything.

"What do you know about her?" he finally demanded, and the kid winced.

"...Um, if you mean what she does for the Alliance, n-not much?" he stammered. "Aiko-nee is basically my older sister, I guess, and we don't really... uh, talk about work."

_So he didn't know,_ Shouta thought. The fact that the kid stood up to her like that, no matter how familiar and close they might be, already seemed to suggest he didn't know anyway, but his response just solidified it. The kid seemed to hesitate before looking at him, asking, "Um, how do you know her, if you don't mind me asking?"

Shouta flinched at the question, gritting his teeth as he looked down. "...If she wants you to know, you can ask her," he said roughly. He wouldn't be the one to out her secrets if she didn't want Midoriya to know. Given what he knew of her, angering her could very well be a death sentence and he would rather not die just yet.

At the same time though, denying Midoriya might just upset _him_. The realization sent a cold chill through Shouta and he winced, eyes briefly widening in horror. "I'm sorry," he tacked on hurriedly. "But I just... I can't..." He trailed off, feeling his heart start to race again. Shit. This was so fucked up, he shouldn't be so anxious talking to a _teenager_, but—

(But had she been that much older than Midoriya was now?)

_No. Stop thinking about it._ He shook his head furiously, dispelling the thoughts and memories before they could fully form. "A—Eraserhead, sir?" Midoriya's meek voice brought him back to reality, and he looked up to find the kid watching him with a frantic look. Shouta could only look for a moment before tearing his gaze away again.

"I'm sorry," he repeated in a hoarse whisper, because he didn't know what else to say, couldn't bring himself to say anything else. The kid frowned in his peripheral vision, and for a moment Shouta feared he'd try to push for more anyway, or get mad he refused. But to his eternal relief Midoriya seemed to decide against it.

"Okay," he said. "But also, um... I'm sorry." That startled Shouta, head snapping back up and eyes going wide as Midoriya stammered, "A-about not bringing you breakfast this morning, or stopping by. I—it's just, after last night, I just..." He trailed off, frowning and shaking his head. "I shouldn't have avoided you today. I'm sorry."

Shouta just stared dumbly, still stunned to have gotten an apology for _anything_. And for something so small? _Shouta_ had been the one who'd intentionally pushed the kid to his breaking point, until whatever happened last night. With how it ended, he'd be surprised if the kid wanted anything to do with him—

And then it suddenly hit him: _Midoriya was here._

Despite everything that happened last night, despite all his anxieties from that morning, Midoriya came back. The kid actually _came back_. Maybe it was the shock of that realization, maybe it was just nerves from the previous five minutes, but at long last Shouta finally, _finally_ felt like his head had cleared, his mind once more grounded in the present. And with that came familiar rationality.

All at once he felt the energy drain from his shoulders, heaving a heavy sigh. "...Kid, if anyone should apologize, it's me," he said, and now it was Midoriya's turn to be surprised. Shouta didn't look at him as he muttered, "I'm the one that provoked you last night until... whatever happened."

He grimaced, not sure how to even approach whatever _that_ was. Part of him wanted to ask about, because despite how it initially looked that _wasn't_ a panic attack. Now was not the time though, nor did he know if the kid would even answer, so he instead continued, "I shouldn't have pushed you like that. And besides, you were right."

The last part pushed Midoriya's surprise to peak levels, confusion now lacing his expression while Shouta hung his head. "About what?" he asked after a few seconds.

"The heroes won't know what they're getting into," Shouta said gruffly, and felt the air grow heavier.

* * *

Izuku spent an hour with Aizawa, shoulders feeling heavier than they had in a long time when he stepped out of the room. They hadn't really talked much after that last bit, but he had been wary to leave so soon after Aiko left, and he felt like Aizawa felt just as wary of being left alone.

He couldn't get the brief encounter with Aiko out of his mind. When he threw open the door, he felt like all of his fears had been confirmed. Aizawa actually _flinched_, and when their eyes met Izuku realized Toga hadn't been exaggerating about how bloodshot they were compared to normal. Worse though, he could _see_ the tension in Aizawa's body, coiled up and clearly threatened. Izuku had never seen his teacher look so _vulnerable_.

Placing himself between them had been pure instinct. Standing up to Aiko like that made his nerve rankle like never before, even as she smiled and acted so friendly, but he couldn't ignore Aizawa's discomfort. Aizawa had been there for him so many times in his own world, he literally risked his life to protect him and all his other classmates. Returning the favor felt natural, even if it wasn't their teacher.

That instinct only grew stronger as Izuku confronted Aiko. Aizawa spent the full time on the defensive, and only when the door closed did he finally, _finally_ relax again. Even then though he didn't _completely_ lose the tension, still clearly on edge for the majority of the visit. Izuku had no idea what happened before he showed up, what Aiko said or did, but the man looked more shaken than he'd thought possible.

Now more than ever, Izuku wanted to tell Aizawa that he was on his side and about the escape, but he _couldn't_. The way Aizawa looked and acted, he was clearly disturbed by the visit from Aiko and not in the best frame of mind. What terrified Izuku the most though was the anxiety Aizawa briefly showed before he apologized for refusing to tell him about his history with Aiko, how he'd been unable to even finish his senteces. And then later, the sheer _relief_ that briefly flickered on Aizawa's face before he apologized for provoking him last night.

Izuku wasn't an expert in these things, but there was something very, _very_ wrong with the power dynamic here. That much had been obvious from the very start, the man was a _prisoner_ after all, but Aizawa's behavior made him realize there was even more than he'd initially realized. There just seemed to be some sort of—of _desperation_, maybe. Something frantic and fearful. Whatever it was left Izuku feeling cold.

Telling Aizawa anything with him in that state, while it might give the man some relief, felt like a bad idea in the long run. He wasn't thinking clearly, and when his mind _did_ clear up, how would he react? Would he believe it, or would he think Izuku had been taking advantage of his current state? Would it just make him double down on his doubts, and later accuse Izuku of trying to fool him again?

So, no. Izuku's gut said now was _not_ the time to tell him, and he had no better idea than to trust it for now.

He frowned as he finally reached his room and closed the door, heading to the desk to grab his phone. This couldn't go on much longer. They needed to get out, and to that end he opened up the group chat, mind flicking to the cuff still wrapped up in his pocket.

'_Guys, could you push the meeting back to Tuesday? Or at least tomorrow evening? I need to meet up with Uraraka first. I might have something I need delivered to Hatsume_'

* * *

Around the same time Ran sat alone in a park with Nakamura, having just filled him in on the situation. The older teen had never looked quite as grave as he did then, shoulders slumped and one hand pressed to the bridge of his nose.

"This is bad," he said after several long moments. "Very, very bad."

"Yep," she agreed with a nod.

"We are _not_ telling anyone the full details," he added.

"Nope." That much was obvious.

"I'll read in Glitch, and come up with something to tell the others," he continued. "We'll meet up with these guys, or spy on them, or _something_, and... get the rest of the details, I guess?" He dragged his hand down his face. "Do you want to hijack one of my ears or something when the meeting comes around?"

"That would be helpful," Ran agreed with a nod. "Text me when it's time, I'll cut class if I have to."

"Great," he growled under his breath, hanging his head with a tired sigh. "I hate this."

"That makes two of us."

This meeting was going to suck.

* * *

**OMAKE: Seiko's Masterpiece**

Later that evening, Tomura was walking through the halls on his way to visit Izuku when he heard the familiar sounds of Twice arguing with himself. "What the heck is that thing? It's terrifying! The blossoms are so pretty! This is going to haunt my nightmares!"

"I know, right?" Slycer's voice muttered. "This is some real nightmare shit..."

"The presentation is certainly... effective," Compress hummed, sounding mildly unsettled. At that point Tomura found his curiosity officially piqued, and changed course to go to that hallway. He turned the corner to find a small crowd standing in front of a wall, including Magne, Mustard, and a bunch of other mooks whose names he didn't bother learning.

"What the hell's going on?" he grumbled as he tromped over, only to stop and join them in gaping at a wall.

A grotesque tree had been scribbled on it in what looked almost like blood, the branches filled in with light pink petals and adorned by nooses used to hang multiple bodies. The scratchily-drawn expressions made them look like they were in unspeakable agony, mouths open and eyes screwed tightly shut. Most dangled limply, arms hanging at their sides with _eerily_ defined fingers compared to the rest of their largely basic silhouettes. He couldn't help notice how all the scratchiness of the red made the fingertips look almost bloody.

And as if that wasn't enough, a severed human head sat in the hollow of the tree. Far more detailed than the hanging bodies, with fully defined eyes and a mouth partially open as if gasping for air for lungs it no longer possessed.

That was when Tomura decided, _Fuck this._ "Fuck this," he said out loud, just for good measure. "What the actual fuck. Who drew this shit?"

"I don't know, but I think they need therapy," Magne proclaimed solemnly, getting several solemn nods of agreement. For once Tomura couldn't even disagree, because there was just something messed up about that drawing.

In the end, he didn't visit Izuku that night. The rest of the night was devoted to investigating who the heck made that drawing, with no success. Mainly because no one came forward to claim responsibility, and then devolved into ridiculous conspiracy theories about supernatural entities, much to his irritation.

(As she watched from the shadows as the Alliance argued over theories about ghosts of dead patients coming back to haunt them, Seiko silently decided her drawing to be a roaring success.)

* * *

**No question this week, either. Looking forward to your reactions.**


	61. Chapter 61: Fluff and Flaming Fences

Chapter 61

.::Fluff and Flaming Fences::.

After much negotiation, the meeting got delayed to Tuesday. Everyone had been disgruntled by the delay, but Midoriya said he needed the time to check some stuff. Specifically, the delivery for Hatsume. He didn't say what it was because he wanted to get some more information, but he also wanted to talk to Uraraka about... something that happened yesterday? So she could pass it on too?

Denki was admittedly curious about all that, but he didn't dwell on it long. At the end of the day they'd still find out tomorrow. So with an extra day before the meeting, he and Jirou decided to use that time to do another patrol and keep the 1-A Vigilantes in the news. Especially since Tokoyami might be here.

"Do you think he's from 1-A?" he asked Jirou as they moved around his apartment preparing for their patrol. They'd already done the morning check in with their homeroom teachers, and had since moved on to collecting their stuff. Most of their gear usually stayed at the warehouse, but they'd grabbed some smaller things yesterday to take to Odawara before Midoriya asked them to delay the meeting.

For her part Jirou just shrugged while shoving her gauntlets into a tote bag. "I don't know. Maybe? They _did_ only show up here after we started making news, so it'd kinda make sense I guess."

"Man, I kinda hope so," Denki said, hopping to grab one of his lightning rods from top shelf of a bookshelf. "I've been looking into this Gentle Criminal guy, and he actually sounds kinda rad in this world? Like, I dunno, he seems like he's actually really good!" He turned around and found Jirou gazing at him quizzically, making him pause. "What? Is that weird?"

"No, or well, yeah, it is," she deadpanned. "But I was wondering more about why your gear is on that shelf." Denki paused and glanced over at the bookshelf.

"...I actually don't know," he said blankly. Sometimes he just threw stuff around without really thinking about where he put it, but he usually knew where to find it afterwards.

Jirou just snorted. "Maybe you're a sleepwalker in this world," she joked dryly, and turned away to continue gathering her belongings while Denki frowned. He definitely wasn't a sleepwalker in his own world, so he didn't know if this world's Denki was either. Would it carry over like muscle memory? Or was it something else? Like the other Denki was trying to take control of his body again, but could only _really_ do it at night while he was asleep?

The thought made him shudder. Okay, too creepy. He glanced back at the shelf looking for a distraction, and his eye quickly caught on a framed family photo. He'd noticed it before but hadn't really _looked_ at it, finding it weirdly intrusive to look at stuff from the other Denki. His mom stood in the back beside a black-haired man while Denki stood next to an orange-haired girl who looked a little younger than him, both holding toddlers with gold and red hair.

He blinked at it, eyes drawn to the toddlers. "Oh, I guess I have three siblings in this world then," he mused. He heard a thump behind him and turned to see Jirou staring wide-eyed, having dropped the tote bag she'd used to store her gear.

"Hold on, _what?_" she demanded. "Are you saying you have extra siblings in this world that don't exist in _ours_?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess?" He shrugged, glancing back at the photo awkwardly with a small grimace. "Actually, I think my parents got divorced? I have texts from a girl named Akiko and she called me 'laziest stepbrother ever' so I mean, I'm just kinda assuming that they split up...?"

"Back up, you have a _stepsister_?" Jirou cut in. "When did you find those texts?"

"Day two, I think?" Her jaw actually fell open at that and Denki shrugged again, face twisting into a small grimace. "I've, uh, tried not to think on it too hard. I stopped reading the history after the 'stepbrother' thing. But I think the main reason I came to school in Hosu was because the house was just too much with the twins?" He had no context for that since he literally _just_ found out they existed, but it felt... weirdly right?

Jirou just stared even harder, and then walked over to look at the photo. "Okay, question. How do you know they're twins?" That had Denki pausing and turning to glance at the photo again. The toddlers looked similar enough, but they weren't identical. The blond one had _much_ rounder eyes than her twin brother, closer to who he presumed to be Akiko and her dad, and the redhead was noticeably larger than his sister even in Denki's arms. Or maybe the blond one was just small? Or both?

"...I don't know," he said slowly. "I guess because they're toddlers, I just kinda... assumed...?" He trailed off awkwardly, feeling distinctly uncomfortable because he felt like there was more to it than just that. He still felt a bit spooked thinking about all the subconscious mumbo-jumbo they discussed yesterday. The idea that he still had some memories from this other Denki, who lived a totally different life, just made him feel creeped out. Like the other Denki might wake up one day and demand he get out.

For a moment neither of them spoke, just stared at the photo. Then Jirou turned and trotted over to the kitchen counter to grab his phone, quickly unlocking it and scrolling through it. "Their names are Maki and Momiji," she declared after several long seconds. "If you scrolled up like five texts, that conversation you mentioned had her talking about them destroying a fence."

He startled and blurted, "Wait, what?"

"Momiji's Quirk came in early, and he can apparently produce maple sap? So he doused the wall, and then Maki got her hands on matches somehow." Denki openly winced at that.

"Is maple sap flammable?" he asked.

"According to these texts? Very." Denki shuddered.

"No wonder I left," he muttered, heading over to the kitchen counter to grab his gloves. He'd left them on top of a pile of bills and other mail, and when he grabbed them the pile shifted and he noticed something on the wall that made him pause. He shifted the pile away to get a clearer look. It was small, black and square, small enough to be hidden behind all the mail (granted, there _was_ also some sort of big catalog at the bottom of the stack too), and relatively slim.

It must be sticky on one side, because it was attached to the wall just _above_ the counter. Part of him wanted to try to pry it off, but his more rational side dictated that touching strange objects might not be the best idea. "Hey, Jirou?" he called. "Could you come here and tell me what this thing is?"

"What, you mean bills?" Jirou asked sarcastically as she came over, but fell silent as she saw the object. She visibly jolted in place, eyes going wide as she whispered, "Shit."

Oh crap, that was a bad sign. "What is it?" Denki pressed, and she turned to him with wide eyes. Rather than respond she grabbed his arm and dragged him to the front door, Denki not even getting a chance to whine about not wearing any shoes before she dragged him into the bitter cold in the hallway. She slammed the door and spun to face him, grabbing his shoulders to pull him close.

"That's a _bug_," she hissed, and Denki felt his blood run cold.

"_What?_ Y-you mean like in spy movies!?"

"Yeah, no shit!" Jirou released his shoulders and turned around, tugging at her hair. "Shit, this is bad. This is _really_ bad." She began pacing anxiously, the sight of it making Denki feel just as anxious. Jirou had been the solid rock this whole time, so seeing her freak out like this really did not help his nerves. _Oh crap, that meant HE had to be the rational one here, didn't it?_

"O-okay, let's not panic," he said, trying to step into his potential new role as the "voice of reason" as best as he could. "Uh, maybe other-me bought it because it was cool? I mean, I know that if _I_ saw one of those for sale I'd buy it for sure! It might not be connected to anything! That doesn't mean anyone's listened to us—"

"Kaminari," Jirou cut in sharply, spinning to face him with a scowl. "That's one of _Yaomomo's_ bugs. She's used them in three different training exercises!"

Denki paused as that sank in. Oh. Well that changed everything. "Okay, never mind, panic away," he declared, and proceeded to appropriately freak out.

oOoOo

As far as Hitoshi knew, Midoriya's agenda for today was all set. They'd discussed it in detail yesterday after finding that anklet from Toga. Most of it would be like any other day, save for Midoriya seeking out Toga to find her motive for giving it to him. After all, the timing was incredibly suspicious. Depending on her response, he'd take it to Aiko's place to give to Uraraka, who could then deliver it to someone to give to that inventor chick.

That plan of course got altered after_ Aiko snuck in to visit and traumatize Eraserhead_, an event Midoriya had bemoaned for the remainder of the night. Having him come back and ramble for two hours about what the heck could cause such a reaction from the man had kinda put a damper on their gaming. Not that Hitoshi could blame him. From what Midoriya described, Aiko seemed to have triggered a flashback or _something_ in the man.

After that, the plan got changed just slightly. Most of it remained the same, but Midoriya would go to Aiko's earlier. Mainly so he could confront Aiko on what the hell happened between her and Eraserhead in the past to make him so utterly freaked out.

So yeah, Midoriya's agenda for the day was set.

Unfortunately, it occurred to Hitoshi that none of the villains knew of his plans, or even what happened yesterday. If they had, Kurogiri wouldn't have appeared after breakfast to announce they'd be having more lessons with Eraserhead today.

"I trust you won't have any objections," the misty man commented while Hitoshi went to grab the bag Kurogiri had graciously brought to keep his schoolwork in. "The first session seemed to go well from Izuku's reports after all." Hitoshi grunted because overall it _did_ go well—or as well as a tutoring session with a captive hero could go.

Today, however, he didn't think Eraserhead _or_ Midoriya would be up for it. Based on how Midoriya rambled last night, their last meeting had been more traumatic than anything. Midoriya had actually _sulked_ after he went to take Eraserhead dinner. Just curled up on Hitoshi's bed hugging his knees to his chest and muttering, "_Am I a bad person? Am I a villain too?_"

At this point, Hitoshi firmly decided the answer was _no_. He'd met _grade school students_ more vindictive and vicious than Midoriya. At this point he felt more pity than fear and suspicion towards Midoriya. Now if only Eraserhead would feel the same.

Something told him neither of them would be too happy with the tutoring session so soon after yesterday, but they couldn't really tell Kurogiri that. He gathered his books in sullen silence while Kurogiri left to retrieve the others, trying not to let his dread be too noticeable. As he did Sushi decided to get underfoot like usual, plaintively mewing for attention and pawing at his leg. Hitoshi glanced at her and paused, an idea forming.

Five minutes later there was a knock on the door and a sullen Midoriya opened it. "Hey, Hijack," he greeted, voice just slightly less dead than Hitoshi expected. He stepped aside so Hitoshi could exit, joining him and Bakugou in the hallway. Kurogiri hovered nearby, following them to Eraserhead's cell.

When they opened the door, the hero looked just as happy with the development as Hitoshi predicted—as in, not at all. He sat up and seemed to slump as they filed inside. "I'll be back in time for lunch," Kurogiri reminded them, and closed the door to leave them in awkward silence.

"I am so sorry," Midoriya finally said, hanging his head. "We can just study in silence."

"No, it's fine," Eraserhead sighed. "You can ask me if you have questions. At least it's something to do," he added under his breath, though Hitoshi suspected they weren't supposed to hear that part.

"Fine, not that I'll need it," Bakugou scoffed as he started getting out his books. "I'm not an idiot like Deku or stuck on middle school stuff like the vigilante wonder over there."

"Kacchan!" Midoriya whined, while Eraserhead glanced at Hitoshi sharply.

"Vigilante?" he repeated. Hitoshi just shrugged as he set down his bag so he could pull out his phone.

"_That's how I got caught,_" he typed. Eraserhead looked like he didn't know how to respond to that, but he didn't have to because a quiet meow sounded, making everyone pause.

"...Eyebags," Bakugou said after a few seconds. "Did your bag just meow?" Hitoshi responded by opening his bag to pull out Sushi, the cat purring and nuzzling him contently. When he glanced over at Eraserhead he found the man staring at them wide-eyed, sitting up and looking particularly alert.

"You have a cat?" he asked, and Hitoshi shrugged, not really able to type on his phone with an armful of mewing feline.

"Technically, it's mine, but Hijack likes cats more so I let him keep her," Midoriya interjected, shooting Hitoshi an inquisitive look. Hitoshi ignored him as he marched over to Eraserhead and carefully set Sushi on the floor near him. The kitten mewed inquisitively as she prodded towards the new person, the captive hero just staring at her dumbly.

"_Do you like cats?_" Hitoshi asked through his phone. By that point it was a bit late for Eraserhead to say otherwise though, as Sushi had already started climbing onto his lap. He still seemed a bit dumbfounded by Sushi's presence, but soon nodded and relaxed slightly.

"Yeah. Haven't seen one in ages. What's her name?"

"_Sushi._" That made the man stiffen again for some reason.

"...Interesting choice," he remarked carefully, and Bakugou snorted.

"It wasn't our idea. That misty bastard came up with it. I still say it's a stupid name."

"Yeah, apparently he does that for every cat?" Midoriya added with a shrug. "So I guess we can rename her, but..." He trailed off awkwardly, still shooting Hitoshi quizzical glances which he ignored. He knew Midoriya was probably surprised that Hitoshi had brought Sushi along since he didn't really want to share custody of the kitten with anyone. He _did_ still worry Eraserhead would fall for Sushi's charm and try to fight for custody, but right now the man needed every comfort he could get.

It seemed like he'd made a good choice, because he could _see_ the tension drain from the man's shoulders as he reached out to pet her. If the mittens bothered Sushi, she didn't show it, instead poking at the fabric curiously. There was a brief flicker of a frown on the hero's face though, and Hitoshi could recognize the pain of someone who wanted nothing more than to run their fingers through soft fur.

He shook off the pang of sympathy as he typed on his phone. "_You can hold her until we leave at lunch._" He wouldn't let Eraserhead hold onto her afterwards, he still didn't want the man to get _too_ attached and keep Sushi for himself. Sushi was probably the best thing to happen to Hitoshi in this hellhole, he felt like he deserved to be selfish about _something_.

Eraser just nodded though, still rubbing Sushi's head. "Thanks," he ground out, voice just slightly rougher than usual. Hitoshi nodded as he returned to where he'd left his bag, feeling oddly subdued as he got out the workbooks.

Honestly, all this just reminded Hitoshi that he'd gotten _lucky_. He might be trapped in a damn muzzle and suffered some _severe_ trauma, but these guys hadn't _tortured_ him or anything. They wanted him to work with Midoriya, so they were giving him pretty decent treatment. Eraserhead meanwhile had his leg broken, been collared to the fucking floor, _and_ was stuck in those mittens so he couldn't even get to fully enjoy the nice feeling of petting Sushi. And even the mittens were a concession Midoriya had to argue for; before that his hands had just been bound behind his back.

That didn't even touch on what must have happened before coming here. If Midoriya was right, the guy had been missing since late spring, and it was now _winter_. Who knew what happened to him in the last place? It was kind of a miracle the guy seemed so mentally okay, all things considered.

Actually, after yesterday, he _really_ shouldn't be so calm, at least if he'd been as shaken up as Midoriya said. Was he trying to seem more steady for _them_?

The thought sent a pang of... _something_ through Hitoshi. Respect, maybe? Guilt? Eraserhead had enough on his plate, but it seemed like the guy was trying to put on a tough front for them.

He shook the thought away, focusing his attention on his schoolwork. Pondering what went on in Eraserhead's mind wouldn't help right now. Today they might _finally_ make some progress to getting these stupid bombs off their ankles. If they could just get these things off, planning the rest of the escape would be almost laughably simple. The only remaining hurdle would be moving Eraserhead, but he had no doubt they could work that out.

He never thought he'd say this, but he _really_ hoped Toga was on their side.

oOoOo

Mashirao still had no idea if these people were sane or crazy. The stuff Rogue told them didn't make it any clearer.

"So there's six of them total, huh?" he muttered. "I remember they talked about there maybe being three others, didn't expect a fourth one to show up."

"Yes, I wonder what's going on with him," Neito mused with a nod. "Rogue didn't seem to know much." Nakamura had just dismissed the meeting, leaving everyone to their own devices, and Mashirao and Neito had decided to go get groceries. Shiozaki and Kouda were on the rotation for shopping today, but the blond pair had volunteered to do it instead so they could talk over what Rogue had told them.

"I'm still not sure if this isn't part of some giant villain conspiracy," Mashirao sighed, breath leaving his mouth in a visible puff of air. "But with six different people apparently saying the same thing and everything Parasyte mentioned, it's starting to feel like there might actually be something going on."

Neito hummed in agreement. "It's still hard to wrap my head around the idea that other worlds exist. But if even Nettmegg is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, I feel like we should at least try to extend the same courtesy. But right now, I'm more curious about that sixth person."

"Yeah, no kidding," Mashirao snorted softly, rolling his eyes. The news a sixth member of the group had turned up had been a big enough shock on its own, and the details only got more stunning. Rogue didn't have many details, only what Nettmegg told him, but it seemed the kid was caught up with villains. That alone raised _many_ alarm bells, but there was one more detail that stood out.

"From what they said, he's apparently Quirkless in this world, but not theirs," Neito commented. "Or at least, he was when he went missing in this one." That had been one of the few details they'd actually gone out of their way to confirm after Friday. The case of Midoriya Izuku had _clearly_ fascinated Neito from the start, probably because of the nature of his own Quirk.

"You think it's possible for Quirks to go undiscovered that long?" Mashirao asked, and Neito shrugged.

"It's happened before. I remember reading a case study about a boy with a mutated Quirk that allowed him to take on traits of fish he ate, but his mother had a serious seafood allergy, so it went undiscovered until he was in middle school. Someone else could change the pigment of sand to be different colors, but lived in the mountains so they didn't get a chance to try it until adulthood."

That one had Mashirao pausing. "How does that work? Isn't sand just broken rocks?"

"Yes, well, the article didn't have many details on the Quirk," Neito replied with a shrug. "It was actually about a mountain village which had a lot of early Quirk users when they first appeared. Most of it was second-hand stories from a resident around fifty years after the fact, so obviously he couldn't remember everything. I wonder if he's still around," he added thoughtfully.

"Didn't you just say this was from when Quirks first appeared?" Mashirao asked flatly. "Wouldn't he have to be close to two hundred years old?"

"He had a longevity Quirk," Neito dismissed. "It didn't become apparent until he reached adulthood when it started slowing his aging. He was in his sixties at the time of the article but looked like he was in his twenties." That had Mashirao stopping short again, staring at him as he digested that.

"...Huh," he said after a beat. Kinda crazy to think that people might still exist from back when Quirks first came about. "Alright, that's interesting and all, but this Midoriya kid's Quirk..."

Neito picked up on his line of thought quickly. "Yes, it doesn't really seem like one that would go unnoticed. They said it tended to break his bones whenever he used it at the start of the year, so it's odd it didn't manifest earlier."

"Maybe his body just couldn't handle it because it was too strong?"

"Perhaps, but it's still unusual. There are other cases where the Quirk and body aren't fully compatible, but the Quirk usually manifests within the normal age range anyway. And even then, the incompatibility isn't usually _that_ extreme." Neito glanced down at his palm. "They didn't say if he has it _now_, but either way, I want to meet him."

Mashirao didn't bother responding, turning his gaze forward as the grocery store came into sight. He wanted to meet Midoriya Izuku as well, but for different reasons. The guy lived with _villains_. He didn't know what group or how long, but either he was a victim, or an accomplice of some sort.

Whatever was going on with Midoriya Izuku, he wanted to find the truth.

* * *

**Fun fact: the Discord has an ongoing joke that Kaminari has genius octuplet siblings exclusive to the Ignite world who may or may not be the cause of the mess, and he fled to Hosu to escape them. That's a bit extreme, so instead he gets evil twin half-siblings who bring destruction wherever they go. Whee!  
**

**Also, Aizawa finally gets to meet Sushi. Poor man has earned some fluff.**

**Question for next time: ****** Who would make the most chaotic step-siblings?** (This can apply to the six travelers, or any other character.)**


End file.
